ISSUE FREE PLAN: ECO-FLYER RUBBER TWIN

1031 Est. 1935

April 2023.
No. 1031. (113) £6.99
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EMISSION! ECO-FLYER PLANE OF THE FUTURE
O CLOUD TRAMP O BMFA AUCTION 2 O IVAN TAYLOR JAGUAR O SWR ARIZONA FF O MORE…
Contents
AEROMODELLER 1031 April 2023 – Next issue published on 20 April 2023.

Issue 1031 April 2023

(Issue 113 since relaunch)
04 HEARD AT THE 42 BMFA AUCTION 2
HANGAR DOORS THE 2ND BMFA ENGINE AND KIT AUCTION WAS AN How to contact us:
Tel: 01525 222573
EDITORIAL, NEWS AND VIEWS. ONLINE ONLY AFFAIR. NIGEL MONK REPORTS. Email: enquiries@doolittlemedia.com

Editorial:
07 UP & COMING 46 BEGINNERS’ SERIES Editor: Andrew Boddington
CALENDAR OF EVENTS. PART 1: STUART MARSDEN STARTS WITH THE Email: editor@aeromodeller.com
Publisher: Alan Harman
SIMPLE ALL-SHEET CLOUD TRAMP. Administration: Gordon Angus
08 TUNING ENGINES Editorial Design: Peter Hutchinson
STAN PILGRIM DESCRIBES HOW HE MODIFIES 53 AEROPOST Advertisement and circulation:
REDFIN DIESEL ENGINES. READERS’ LETTERS AND EMAILS. Aeromodeller, Doolittle Media,
The Granary, Doolittle Lane,
Totternhoe, Beds, LU6 1QX
14 SWR ARIZONA 54 HOSPITALITY OF
Tel: 01525 222573
CAN MIKE WOODHOUSE FIND SUNNY US WEATHER MODELLERS E-mail: enquiries@doolittlemedia.com
CONDITIONS FOR FF COMPETITION FLYING? RICHARD EVANS’ SALUTE TO THE FAMILY OF
AEROMODELLERS AROUND THE WORLD. Newstrade:
Select Publisher Services, 3 East Avenue,
20 IVAN’S JAGUAR Bournemouth, BH3 7BW
THE LATEST FF EDF SCALE JET BUILD 60 CL COMBAT Tel: 01202 586848
E-mail: tim@selectps.com
FROM IVAN TAYLOR. TIM HOBBINS LOOKS AT THE FORTHCOMING
VINTAGE, OLIVER AND RETRO COMBAT SEASON. Subscriptions:
Aeromodeller, Doolittle Media,
24 EXHIBITIONS The Granary, Doolittle Lane,
WE LOOK BACK AT EARLIER MODEL AIRCRAFT 66 TAIL END CHARLIE Totternhoe, Beds, LU6 1QX
Tel: 01525 222573
EXHIBITIONS NOW THAT COVID APPEARS TO HAVE THE THOUGHTS OF CHRIS OTTEWELL. Subscribe: 12 issues - UK £75, Europe £100,
FINISHED THE LMEE. Worldwide £115

Website: www.doolittlemedia.com
28 FREE PLAN
AeroModeller is published monthly by
ECO-FLYER Doolittle Media, The Granary, Doolittle
GARETH EVANS’ SEMI-SCALE RUBBER POWERED Lane, Totternhoe, Bedfordshire, LU6
MODEL OF WHAT COULD BE THE FUTURE OF 1QX. Entire Contents © 2023 Doolittle
Media Reproduction in part or whole
HYDROGEN POWERED FLIGHT.
of any text, photograph or illustration
without written permission from the
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are accepted for publication in
AeroModeller only upon Doolittle Media’s
standard terms of acceptance of
advertising, copies of which are available
from the advertising sales department of
AeroModeller.

The twin rubber

powered Eco-
Flyer Free Plan by
Gareth Evans.

AeroModeller 1031 - 3
NEWS, VIEWS AND EDITORIAL

HANGAR DOORS
HEARD AT THE

BALSA BUG

T
his may be the April issue
but I promise I’m not trying
to fool you. Reaching for a
length of ¼” square balsa
for my latest build I noticed
there was a small hole in the side. I used
a razor saw to cut through to discard
this to find that there was a burrowed
hole continuing along the centre of the
balsa – after various trial cuts I found that
some little critter had hollowed about
50cm/20inches and then exited!
As the hole is so well placed in the
centre of the strip, I’m pretty sure this
wood worm must have eaten after the ¼”
square was formed. I have a feeling this
piece is from an old stash of balsa that I
inherited from my father, so have no idea
how long ago this happened.
art of me is horrified at the idea that
our models could be destroyed from the
inside without our knowing, although a
search through other pieces of thicker
balsa could find no similar holes. nother
part of me is impressed by whatever
insect(?) made the holes and I wonder
whether we can train it to lighten at will?!
Regards, Andrew Boddington.
editor@aeromodeller.com

‘BUCKY’ POWER STRUGGLERS
Andy Brough of the informal Buckminster
Power Strugglers group has released the
flying dates for this year.
We are a group of vintage sports
flyers flying some free flight but mostly
Andy Brough is the co-ordinator of the Bucky
Power Strugglers group of retro and vintage style
model ers such as the diesel po ered iss .
radio assist from single channel to three
function in vintage and retro models
- no full house aerobatic or fast/noisy
models here. We get the use of BMFA
Buckminster as a subgroup of SAM
and fly on occasional ondays and
Tuesdays. You don’t have to be a SAM
member to fly but we hope you ll oin
having experienced the fun we have. We
are also happy for quiet control line flying
in the same spirit such as aerobatics.
Why the name? We write a monthly
column in the SAM magazine, SAM 35
Speaks, called the Power Struggle and
most of the group are the readers of said
column. This group was the result of a
chat between a group of flyers at Old
arden in 1 . e were reminiscing
about the days we all used to fly our
large free flight models at arkston,
Middle Wallop and other venues and how
it’s not possible anymore. I said if we
fitted some radio to our models, we can
fly them at uckminster plus fly smaller
ones free flight. o, in October 1 we
had our first meeting and this year dates
are 1 16 ay, 6 une, uly, 1
1 ugust, eptember . ith no
competitions we can fly from 1 . am
until dark! There is a great atmosphere,
and everybody is friendly.
e operate light touch regulation at
our meetings. ou book in at the o ce
and come and find me or one of my
colleagues. There is no requirement to
have an certificate but you should be
a competent flyer there are people who
can help if you need it. Only .
radio is allowed. We have a pilots brief at
1 . am each day. or more information
contact ndy rough on acbrough
hotmail.com

‘PETIT CLASSIQUE DE BRUM’

avin anion and tuart armon are organising the irmingham uration lassic to be held at O orth u enham on 16th
April 2023. April is traditionally a bit showery, so much so that they write songs about it… If the forecast is for VERY INCLEMENT
weather, then they WILL POSTPONE the event to the alternate date of 23rd April.
lasses will be pre 1 oupe incl. intage oupe , lassic 1, ombined 6 1 power both second run , lassic
Glider (50m line) and Mini Vintage. Please register your interest by email beforehand as the decision whether they go ahead will be
notified by the evening of Thursday 1 th pril. avin anion gavin.manion gmail.com

4 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023

BMFA STC & NEW SCALE RULES
Mike Smith has been in touch to
point out that the website of the STC
(Scale Technical Committee) has been
considerably updated at scale.bmfa.org
Through the work and research of Paul
Rich and Danny Fenton the STC has now
got a much more fle ible way of updating
the site.
The new 2023 Scale rules have just
been published. The highlights from
ike tuart s scale googlemail.com
summary of the indoor FF changes which
will be used at the Indoor Nats on 23
April are:
OKit Scale – Motive power now back
to rubber, CO2 or electric, regardless of
what was shown on the kit plan.
O eanut cale a time for class
now 60 seconds which can be achieved
RIP ALAN LEE
Thanks to Dick Hart for compiling this
obituary for speed flyer lan ee 1
2023 after talking to his lifelong friend
Ken Morrissey.
Alan Lee, his elder brother Trevor and
en orrissey started flying together
in 1 6 , learning to fly control line with
Keil Kraft Champs powered by ED
Bees. They joined the Sharston MFC
which thrived in Northenden Greater
Manchester at that time. They met
regularly in the old hall which had a
flying site at the back and was also
roomy enough to permit indoor round
the pole flying too. s their flying skills
improved, they flew combat and team
race.
Alan became interested in the
engines and started repairing them for
lub members. is first ob was in the
engineering department of the Northwest
Electricity Board and that allowed him
to start making engine parts too. Around
this time the Lee - Morrissey Speed
Team was born and their first model was
in two ways; Either 60 seconds from
a hand launch or 50 seconds from an
O . Total flight score now the best two
flights from your nine attempts added
together. Limitation on covering materials
now lifted – mylar is now OK – but a new
static judging category has been added
of “Surface Realism” with the “Surface
Finish” marks being removed.
OPistachio Scale - Same changes as
eanut e cept no 1 second bonus for
ROG.
To see the full 2023 rules for this and
other FF, CL, and RC scale models, go
to the BMFA website Downloads section
(bmfa.org/downloads) and select Rule
Books, and then choose ‘2023 BMFA
Scale Rule Book.pdf’.
powered by a ooling . lan embarked
on a science and engineering degree at
John Dalton Polytechnic as it was then,
Manchester Metropolitan University as it
is now.
Alan went to the World Championships
at winderby in 1 6 and met ill
Wisniewski and saw the TWA engine
which was a watershed moment for him,
and he determined to build competition
engines, particularly for speed. Some of
his earlier engines were the Rattlers that
he built for Derek Heaton and Malcolm
Ross to use in class B team race. He
followed up with a bar stock TWA design
with a magnesium pipe which he and
en used to come th in the Team Trials
behind Bill Firbanks, Brian Jackson and
Alan Woodlow.
By the 70’s Alan had made record
breaking piped and motors for the
team. He also built a bar stock piped
60 motor which took the record at the
hurch enton ationals at 1 mph.
Over the ne t few seasons the ee
lan ee ri ht
ith en
orrisse in the
s ith their
speed model.
ike tuart ffscale oo lemail.com is the contact
for information on the ndoor ationals
cale ompetition held in alsall on pril.
Morrissey Speed Team set National
records for , Open . cc, cc, , 6
and Jet.
Alan had completed his studies by
now and had taken a job at UMIST in
the engineering department. His interest
in engines continued unabated, helped
by the innovative ideas that surrounded
him. It was at this time that a couple of
things happened, firstly the harston
lub got permission to fly at the ellvue
Speedway and Stock car track on a
Sunday and secondly Alan acquired a
Juggernaut pulse jet. A model was built
which ran on petrol, Trevor manned the
air pump, Ken was on the handle and
Alan would start and hand launch the
model in spectacular fashion. Alan would
be wearing an old trench coat with a
layer of asbestos sewn on the front, a
pair of welding gloves and a helmet.
Often the trench coat would catch fire
which was then put out by Trevor with
a fire e tinguisher. The whole noisy
spectacle would draw a crowd from
round about which one time included
the manager of the Speedway, who far
from being horrified asked the lads to
fly the model on speedway nights in the
interval for £25 an appearance. As you
might imagine this was quite a hit with
the crowd and the team were a regular
attraction for several months until the
attrition rate of models and pulse jets just
became too much.
Not many people know that Alan also
made the prototype rvine engines for
Ron Irvine. Ron saw their potential and
with Peter Halman hired onto the Irvine
Engines team began a long and very
successful UK engine manufacturing
business.
Alan is survived by his wife Polly and
their children Abigail and Joel.
AeroModeller 1031 - 5
 Ray Cox with his Speed CL
NEWS, VIEWS AND EDITORIAL models at the 2008 Nationals.

RIP RAY COX

adly, another luminary of the peed community has passed. hilarity, I proved all
Thanks to artin adcli e, with assistance from ay s sister aki, these handle variations
for putting together this obituary of afael ay T. o , 1 6 O owever,
. needing two hands for
first came across ay at the end of 1 6 . One lunch hour the handle one would
went to enry icholl s shop at olloway oad ondon have held on to the
and got talking to enry s son ichard about control line speed pylon with one s third
flying and the blanket silencer rule. commented that someone hand o oooo
had put a classified advert in ero odeller, selling all their speed In the early 1960s
equipment, engines and models. person who was standing while in the T
by the counter, who heard this said es, that s me and m club ay pursued
not selling them now because the blanket silencer rule has flying c oy 6
been rescinded. That person was ay o , and this started a powered speed
friendship that lasted through to his passing. models, with some
ay s father was a boat enthusiast. e made steam engines, success, in the
and model boats, and he also wrote articles for the odel company of other T lub
ngineer maga ine. ay and his sister aki were always being members such as us ohnson, on inckert and ank i on.
taken to water events such as the round pond in yde ark. e also got involved with pulse et models with alph ould. This
ay s father encouraged both ay and aki to make balsa tissue continued up to 1st anuary 1 6 when the blanket silencer rule
covered rubber powered planes that they flew in their garden. came into force. hen the blanket silence rule was rescinded in
ay s lifelong involvement with pulse et models came about 1 6 , he started flying again. e was one of several people flying
when ay and his family went to the model air rallies at adlett in the 6 class and at one ationals won the 6 class at well over
erodrome. t was here he saw and heard pulse ets for the first 1 mph.
time, not a sound you would easily forget ay said the sound or a long while after 1 6 ay was pretty much the only
reminded him of the doodlebugs 1 that he had seen go person flying ets in . ith the advent of the caged circles at
overhead during the war, and lead to him building pulse et speed Three isters he started regular et flying there between 1
models later in life. and 1 and set a ational record at, in his words, a lowly
n 1 6 ay oined the . . .T. . club irst ll peed Team 1 . mph with a standard yna et. ith the introduction of nets
urope and his sister aki embroidered the letters . . .T. on at the ationals he started flying ets there and was oined by
a shirt for him. The T lub was set up by and an ander. hen ick and atthew art came back from the
personnel and other like minded flyers in ast nglia. hile in tates and flew ets in it brought about a resurgence in
the T lub ay learnt to fly monoline. eing right handed et flying that ay took advantage of, building several et models
he thought it would be best if he flew clockwise, like many other and achieved his best ever et run at 1 mph.
right handed people at that time. e also tried the backwards t the 1 ationals ay tripped over his own feet and fell
pump handles that were being used for monoline in the class over while flying his ast et. ay decided that at the age of
at that time. e tried them out on a O profile model with he was no longer fleet footed enough to fly the fast models and
the pump assembly laying alongside his arm, vertically above the terminated his speed flying and eventually all aeromodelling. e
handle and hori ontally to the handle. and reported that after a then took up model hydroplane racing. ay passed away in his
number of test sessions, and a lot of divot digging, and general sleep on 1 th ecember , at a nursing home in Thetford.

GILDINGS JACK LEE AUCTION

On Wednesday 26th April, Gildings are
proud to o er the single owner collection
of the late ack aw of ewark.
Consisting of more than 600 engines,
this is one of the most impressive (and
ordered collections of aero engines
that have come to auction for some
years. ore information will be available
for readers in the April issue as to the
composition of the sale.
ack formally named ohn made
model aircraft from a very young age,
and collected engines from the end
of the econd orld ar. e was still
buying them until a few weeks before he
died in eptember , at the age of
. n avid member of the aeromodelling
community, he ran the ewark club until
it had to close down when the field they
flew on was sold. e then oined the
6 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023
local rantham club, regularly flying his
models at arkston eath. e was a
long standing member of and
close friend to members of other ast
nglia clubs.
is engine collection also includes a
back library of ero odeller maga ines,
from 1 until uly , and those with
a keen eye can pick him out of the front
cover of the ovember 1 1 issue.
ou can register your interest now
on the ildings website, when you ll
be informed as soon as the catalogue
is published. otential buyers will be
able to view and attend the auction
on the sale day, with bidding in the
room available. iewing in person on
the onday and Tuesday prior to the
auction. www.gildings.co.uk
More than 600 engines from the collection of the
late Jack Law will be sold at Gildings on 26th
pril . ack is standin rst from the left on
this November 1971 cover.
EVENTS
UP & COMING
lease note that the events listed are compiled weeks in advance of publication, so please check in case of change specifically O venues
such as Barkston Heath can be cancelled at short notice. For inclusion of your event, please send an email with date and details in a format similar
to those shown below to editor@aeromodeller.com
MARCH
15 March
Flitehook Indoor FF, West Totton Community
Centre, Southampton SO40 8WU. 12:00 to
16:00. Flyers £8. Spectators & Juniors Free.
Cafe, Parking. rogerknewman@yahoo.com
19 March
BMFA SW Area Indoor Flying, Birds Of Prey
Centre, Winnard’s Perch, St Columb TR9 6DH.
1200 to 1600, FF, micro RC & electric CL.
Ron Marking ron.marking@btinternet.com
26 March
3rd Area FF - Gamage Day, Area Venues. CG,
CR (Gamage)F1C (Halfax, Plugge), F1Q, 1/2A,
E36, Vintage G (Plugge), Mini Vintage, P30,
H/CLG (Plugge), Tailless. BMFA Area Comp
Secs, freeflight.bmfa.org
APRIL
1 April
Heave Ho FF Glider 12th Postal, start for 1
month. Indoor & outdoor CLG/HLG, free entry,
Juniors & Adults prizes.
Len Surtees lensurtees@hotmail.com
stingmk2gliders.com
1 April
F2E Diesel Combat, BMFA Buckminster,
Sewstern, NG33 5RW. 09:30 to 17:00. Pre
entry required, see CFA Website
www.combatflyers.co.uk
Gordon Price gordon.price1@ntlworld.com
Tim Hobbins tim.hobbins@gmail.com
1 April
Nostalgic & Open Speed, BMFA Buckminster,
Sewstern, NG33 5RW. 09:30 to 17:30.
Also reserve day for F2A team Selection.
Tony Goodger (Nostalgic) 07802724402
tgoodyer47@gmail.com
Peter Halman (Open) 07909594963
peter.halman21@virginmedia.com
2 April
Vintage Combat 1st Round, BMFA
Buckminster, Sewstern, NG33 5RW. 09:30 to
17:00. www.combatflyers.co.uk
Tony Cookson 07801947531
streamerchaser@gmail.com
Tim Hobbins 07940730202
tim.hobbins@gmail.com
2 April
OFMAC Indoor Flying, Abbey Centre, Furlong
reen, erinsfield O 1 . to 1 . The Jack Law Collection Sale of 600 engines.
Indoor FF, FunFly & Scale.
Ian Melville OFMAC@redkite.aero
7 April
Northern Gala (Good Friday), Barkston Heath.
CG (CMA), CR (Caton), CP (Hamley), CE, F1H,
1/2A, SLOP (Falcons), Mini Vintage, P30, H/
CLG, E30.
John Carter 07725 164372
nordicf1a gmail.com freeflight.bmfa.org
8 April for Indoor Fly-In (micro RC & FF) to 20.00.
Tonbridge Gassers & Rubber Fanciers Indoor, Mick Lawson dickybird1@hotmail.com
Kings Sport Centre, 601 Maidstone Rd, 07739584913
Rochester ME1 3QJ. 18.30 to 22.00. FF, LW
RC, & 3D RC timed sessions. 16 April
Steve 0208 942 5000 or Eric 07763 398416 Rochdale Indoor, Kingsway Park High School,
Turf ill d, ochdale O 16 . 11 to
8 April 1600. All indoor inc FF with slots.
Indoor Flying Fun, Stalham High School, Martyn Kinder 079890 25198
Norfolk, NR12 9DG. 12:00 to 15:00. FF only. bmfa.nw@gmail.com
Flyers £10, watchers £3.
Richard Crossley, 01692 407936 17 April
richardcrossley1967@gmail.com E20 Competition by Peterborough MFC,
BMFA Buckminster, Sewstern, NG33 5RW.
10 April E20 Competition as rules on e20world.com
roydon akefield 1 66 ay, alisbury. £3 entry, cash prizes. Weather dependent so
roydon lub omps o akefield o check on riday before after 6 pm to confirm.
akefield 1 in rounds arcus s . Peter Gibbons 07394521820
1 66 omps int lass lider ini int. Luke Goymour 07752236645
Ray Elliott 0208 9977745
Roger Newman 02392 550809 19 April
www.sam1066.org Flitehook Indoor FF, West Totton Community
Centre, Southampton SO40 8WU. 12:00 to
16:00. Flyers £8. Spectators & Juniors Free.
15-16 April
Cafe, Parking. rogerknewman@yahoo.com
SAM35 Spring Gala, Buckminster, Sewstern,
NG33 5RW. Includes Tether Car, Sat
21-24 April
am Voetsak Tribute racing Steve Betney
1st F1E, venue TBD. Team Selection 1, 1 or 2
stevebetney@aol.com . Phantom ‘75’ Racing
days according to weather.
Brian Lever 01733 252416
blever@btinternet.com www.sam35.org Ian Kaynes, 01252 512538
kaynes btinteret.com freeflight.bmfa.org
15 April
22 April
Vintage Stunt (Mick Taylor Trophy),
Scale Indoor RC Nats, Wolverhampton
Buckminster.
University Sports Centre, Magdalene Road,
Chris Maggs christopher.maggs2@gmail.com
alsall. 1 T . adio ontrol cale, 1,
CLAPA clapa.org
2, & 3.
15 April Paul Rich 07403 494161
p.rich@sky.com scale.bmfa.org
Nostalgic & Open Speed, BMFA Buckminster,
Sewstern, NG33 5RW. 09:30 to 17:30. F2A
23 April
team Selection.
Scale Indoor FF Nats, Wolverhampton
Tony Goodger (Nostalgic) 07802724402
University Sports Centre, Magdalene Road,
tgoodyer47@gmail.com
Walsall. WS1 3TA. Free Flight Scale classes:
Peter Halman (Open) 07909594963
Open, Intermediate, Kit (Rubber, CO2 or
peter.halman21@virginmedia.com
electric), Peanut, & Pistachio.
16 (or 23!) April Mike Stuart scale googlemail.com
scale.bmfa.org
‘Petit Classique de Birmingham’ FF, North
u enham. ate weather dependent. flights,
no rounds. lasses pre 1 oupe incl int 23 April
F2B 1st Centralised, BMFA Buckminster,
Coupe), Classic A1 glider, Comb E36 + 1/2A
Sewstern, NG33 5RW. CL Aerobatics, incl
power (both 8 second run), Classic Glider
team selection.
(50m line), & Mini Vint.
Mervyn Jones mervynf2b@outlook.com
Gavin Manion gavin.manion84@gmail.com
Stu Darmon 01858 882057
26 April
Gildings Aeroengines Auction, The Mill, Great
16 April
Bowden Rd, Market Harborough LE16 7DE.
Vintage Combat 2nd Round, South Bristol
MAC, Berkeley. 09:30 to 17:00.
www.combatflyers.co.uk Viewing on previous Monday & Tuesday.
01858 410414 www.gildings.co.uk
Tony Cookson 07801947531
streamerchaser@gmail.com
29-30 April
Tim Hobbins 07940730202
London Gala FF, Salisbury Plain. Sat: CG, CR,
tim.hobbins@gmail.com
CP, CE, Mini Vintage. Sun: F1H, F1G, F1J,
P30, H/CLG, E30, CO2. Club Champs for CG,
16 April
CR, CP, CE.
Swapmeet Derby Aero MFC, Community
Simon Dixon 0776 408765
Centre, Station Rd, West Hallam, DE7 6HP.
di onfamily1 yahoo.co.uk freeflight.bmfa.org
Start 08.00 Traders, 09.00 Public. Finish @16.00
Full details of BMFA events can be found at: www.bmfa.org
AeroModeller 1031 - 7
 ENGINE MODIFICATION

Tuning & Customising

Redfin Engines
Stan Pilgrim explains modifications he has made to various Redfin Engines to increase performance and
make them suitable for control line work

Editors note – Readers of February

2023’s AeroModeller will now know some
of the design approaches that Alex Phin,
the man behind RedFin and SAM diesel
engines, uses to produce his range of
engines. Alex is contacted by many users
of his engines around the world, and he
introduced me to Stan Pilgrim who has
taken standard RedFins a step or two
further to suit his needs. Over to Stan
Pilgrim…

I
have played with all sorts of engines,
both model and full size (car,
motorcycle and aeroplane) over the
years and most of what I have learnt
has come from trial and error with
those of the model aeroplane variety.
will never know it all but find learn
something every time I experiment.
I mainly work on engines in the 1.25cc
up to and including the 1.8cc range as
I specialise in those. I have at least one
of each produced by Alex Phin in that
range and have modified most of them
to increase the power output. Not all
the modifications carried out could be
readily reproduced by all modellers and I
would suggest that some users leave the
engine alone and carefully run it in and
use it as supplied, rather than risk ruining
a good engine.

Stan Pilgrim with his Wolverine Vintage A Class

team racer po ered b a hi hl modi ed and
radially mounted FROG 250. “I built it to run-in
low-key club events where I felt others were more
likely to compete against you if they think you are
using something they can readily beat! I radially
mounted the engine so I could use it without
cuttin off its e haust stacks. he co l slides off
in a forward direction after removing the spinner.”

8 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023

REDFIN SAM 125 DIESEL
The Ukrainian manufactured SAM
125 (1.25cc) engine is very well made
although some have criticised it for
a lack of performance, but when one
understands that the design brief was to
produce a modern Mills 1.3cc you will
realise that peak performance was not
being sought. I wanted to use my SAM
125 in a control line model, so made the
following modifications to show how
easily the engine could be uprated.
I adapted the SAM 125 by removal
of the integral fuel tank plus it has
been e tensively modified internally to
increase performance. Inlet duration
was 110 degrees initially. The original 2
inlet port holes in the cylinder have been
joined by removal of metal between them
plus the total overall width of the port
has been increased and the bottom edge
lowered in the cylinder, increasing the
inlet duration to 120 degrees.
The inlet window in the crankcase
was then altered slightly to match the
cylinders enlarged inlet port.
Later, after all the other listed
modifications had been carried out along
with a successful test run session, the
piston skirt was shortened very slightly
but only directly in front of the inlet port
which then increased the inlet duration
li htl lar er than most of tan s modi ed en ines his O uses all ori inal parts ith the
by a further 1 degrees to give a final e ception bein piston contra piston prop dri er and spra bar. ne er ot to race the aeroplane but
inlet duration of 130 degrees. ha e o n it and it is e tremel fast for hat it is. he O is super hot and is capable of rpm close
to the mark on an prop. t had a problem hich ne er ed hence althou h fast it is
Exhaust duration = 160 degrees (as non competiti e due to the en ine bein hard to start hen mounted in erted in the aeroplane. am
initially supplied) is a bit on the high side. sure m enturi setup is the problem but am et to take the en ine from the plane and tr to rectif it.
ue to a e no lon er compete in the e ent but as hi hl competiti e hen did.
A maximum of 150 degrees would have
been more appropriate.
Transfer Ports in the piston liner.
Originally the engine had only two ports
with just over 100 degrees duration
but a third central port has now been
added with a curved top edge that
starts to open around 70 degrees before
bottom dead centre. The third port
consists of an angled hole through the
cylinder wall from the outside (refer to
picture), centrally located between the
two existing internal ports. It is fed by a
channel milled up the inside front of the
crankcase.
The piston crown has the land
removed from between the two original
transfer cutaways plus the piston skirt
also has a small section removed from
the bottom in line with the transfer ports.
The Venturi has the original spraybar
set up, but it’s bore has been increased
he diesel ri ht as desi ned as a modern da alternati e to the enerable ills . diesel.
from standard to 5/32 inches (3.97mm) hoto b ill ells

AeroModeller 1031 - 9
ENGINE MODIFICATION
CAD drawing of the
standard SAM 125
from the Power Trip
review in April 2022
AeroModeller.
diameter.
The original 19mm OD X 6mm wide
rear ball race has been replaced with a
freer one of 16mm OD and 5mm wide
with the forward end of the new race
positioned in the same location as the
original race. sleeve had to be fitted
SAM 125 engine number 099 which
has been adapted for control line use
by removal of the integral fuel tank
plus internal modi cations to increase
performance. peci cations ore
. mm. troke . mm. apacit
. cc. ass . as pictured.
10 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023
to the case to suit the smaller OD rear
race. A 1mm wide steel spacer has been
fitted to the crankshaft prior to the rear
ballrace to allow the crankshaft to remain
in its original fore and aft position relative
to the cylinders vertical axis.
. mm steel spacer was fitted to
This third port has been machined in the
piston liner and consists of an angled hole
through the cylinder wall from the outside
centrally located between the two existing
internal ports. It is fed by a channel milled
up the inside front of the crankcase.
the front smaller diameter section of the
crankshaft prior to inserting it into the
front ballrace to ensure the front ballrace
was unseated when installed. The inside
of the crankcase has been opened up
slightly around the crankshaft web area
to give more clearance between the web
and the crankcase.
The crankshaft has been slightly
reduced in diameter forward of the rear
race, leaving a short section forward of
the rear race at the original diameter, to
allow for crankcase seal. The crankshaft
balance has been improved by removal
of metal from the front of the web around
the crankpin area.
The conrod now has an oil feed hole in
its big end approx. 40 degrees from the
bottom and facing to the right when the
engine is viewed from the front.
SAM 125 TEST RESULTS
Using 7 x 4 APC propeller:
O(1) 12,150 rpm after about 15 minutes
total run time with the inlet duration at
120 degrees.
O(2) 12,200 rpm after the inlet duration
was raised to 130 degrees.
O propeller was then fitted
and 11,130 rpm was reached.
OThe engine drops rpm very slightly
 s supplied the manufactured ed n
the st le of a ills.
after it has reached operating
temperature, noticeable when flat out
on the 7 x 5 prop indicating the piston/
cylinder fit is still too tight but the
maximum rpm has increased very slightly
with each consecutive run on both props.
ODue to the excellent quality of the
piston/cylinder combination the engine
will take a long time before ideal running
clearances are achieved and I think when
that occurs the engine will be good for
close to another 500 rpm on the 7 x 4
prop. A very cautious lap job would help
but I will leave as is.
OOne flick starts were common and the
exhaust note is noticeably very sharp
plus the exhaust gas colour was perfect
at all times. The engine is also easy to
tune and very forgiving in that respect
and has excellent fuel draw.
OFuel used: 20% Castrol A747 Oil +
35% Ether + 40% Kerosine to which was
added 1.5% IPN.
SAM 125 OUTCOME
The engine will unload quite a bit more
when flying, particularly on the
prop, when using the 130 degree inlet
duration as opposed to the 120 degree
setup. ue to the design, fits and quality
of the internal components it should also
last a very long time.
The only thing I would be cautious of
is the cylinder alignment as it has not
got a location device. The fins should be
checked for tightness and also check via
the exhaust ports that no rotation of the
cylinder has taken place after running the
engine for a while.
diesel a classic side port in ternall the modi ed
dri er as reshaped plus a socket head cap scre replaced the ori inal
compression scre . he c linder as also painted e ternall ith hi h
temperature black enamel.
Overall a nicely made engine of high
quality and a delight to use.
REDFIN RETRO SP 090
The edfin . ci, 1. cc ide
ort is one of le s earlier engines
manufactured by of hina. hen
received this engine engine number
was tight and had a lot of internal
drag plus the exhaust opening was way
too high at 166 degrees.
I dropped the exhaust timing to 150
degrees duration by replacing the original
24mm between centres conrod with a
new one that is 26mm between centres
and has a 1/8 inch dia. hole for the
gudgeon pin which allowed me to press
fit a new gudgeon pin to the piston.
The piston has been lightened a lot by
completely removing the transfer step
from its crown. I then turned the piston
through 1 degrees when refitting it to
the cylinder. Because the gudgeon pin is
now pressed into the piston, I was able
to remove the land between the original
twin transfer flutes in cylinder and raised
the top of the now single port plus incline
it upwards.
fter all the modifications the transfer
timing ended up at 125 degrees and the
inlet at 120 degrees duration. The top of
the inlet port OT uncovered by the
piston crown when the piston is at BDC.
rankshaft end float was minimised
and oil feed holes were added to the
crankcase to lubricate the 6.5mm
diameter crankshaft journal plus
lubrication holes were added to each
end of the new aluminium alloy conrod.
has a ne prop retainin spinner the prop
new prop retaining spinner was fitted
and the prop driver reshaped plus a
socket head cap screw replaced the
original compression screw. The cylinder
was also painted externally with high
temperature black enamel.
The piston fit was left as original fitted
a bit too tight at T and would initially
require some careful running in. I ran
the engine for close to 25 minutes prior
to the test runs and found the engine to
be easy to start if the compression was
backed o slightly after each top speed
run.
The end result yielded a maximum of
12100 rpm with a short burst to 12200
before the engine heated up. It would run
very consistently if backed o slightly
to 11 rpm. ore running is required
as the piston fit was still too tight to run
consistently at full speed.
ADDITIONAL SP 090
MODIFICATIONS
I then removed the original venturi and
opened it up to 3.84mm diameter for the
full inlet tract length and only flared it out
on the bell mouth end of the tract prior to
the fuel needle position.
The same prop was used for a new
test and the rpm initially went up to
12480 rpm and after some more running
12540 rpm was reached, although the
engine would only then sit constantly
around the 12400 mark when hot due to
the still tight piston fit. think with some
more running when the piston beds in a
bit more somewhere around 12800 rpm
might be possible.
AeroModeller 1031 - 11
ENGINE MODIFICATION

close up ie sho in clear plastic standard

reed in its seat. ncomin mi ture enters
crankcase throu h unco ered portions of the
t o milled slots. urin compression stroke
crankcase pressure pushes reed a ainst seat at
base of enturi block.

he ed n in in diesel as supplied. ee u ust o er rip for the full re ie .

12 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023

 INFO:

The SAM 125 diesel and others in the SAM

range are available from the SAM 35 Treasurer
Kevin Richards, phone +44 1609 7772818 or
treasurersam35@gmail.com

edfin ngines can be contacted on ale

redfinengines.com www.redfinengines.com

rop used was a Thunder Tiger .

and the fuel contained 35% ether, 15%
castor oil, 10% Castrol A747, and 40%
ndustrial erosene to which was added
1.5% IPN. Possibly slightly less IPN
might have been beneficial.
uel needle was a bit too sensitive but
motor was a delight to use, was strong
and would idle at a very slow speed. The
engine piston cylinder unit was fitted on
the tight side and if others are the same,
and I imagine they are, running in to
eventually achieve ma imum power will
take quite a long time.

REDFIN 099 TWINFIN

CARBURETTOR
inally, an e ample of a small but
specialised modification to the krainian
manufactured twin cylinder ed in.
made a special reed valve induction
system for the Twin in . t is very
comple and not what the average
modeller could manufacture, but in its
favour the rpm increase was substantial.
The reed block made for my Twin in
increased the rpm by 1 without doing
anything else. The reeds are not shown
in my jet block picture but are from 0.005
inch thick mylar film and held in place by
the 1 screws shown. There is also
a narrow aluminium retainer strip, not
shown, for the reeds. t stretches across
the top edge of each reed and has 2
holes for the two screws to pass through.

STARTING POINT
ll the modifications have done are
probably above the capabilities of the
average modeller but if someone is
willing to try, the bridge removal from
the inlet port on a single cylinder side
port engine is a good starting point, T
before doing so a pressed in, or circlip
retained, gudgeon pin is a necessity. It
is also important to completely remove
any burrs from the cylinder after the
modification work has been completed
prior to refitting the piston.
If you are an average modeller then
the best improvement to performance is
The reed block I made for my TwinFin increased the rpm by 1000. The two reeds (not shown) mounted gained by methodical running in of the
either side of the central ton ue are from . inch thick m lar lm and held in place b the engine from new, rather than machined
screws shown. There is also a narrow aluminium retainer strip, not shown, for the reeds. It stretches
across the top ed e of each reed and has holes for the t o scre s to pass throu h. changes. ■

AeroModeller 1031 - 13
 INTERNATIONAL FF
SOUTH-WEST
REGIONALS AT ELOY MIKE WOODHOUSE GOES LOOKING FOR THE ARIZONA SUN ON 14-16 JANUARY 2023
T
he last time that I made this
trip to the US was three years
ago in 2020, directly before
the Covid-19 pandemic. I’ve
reported several times in the
past on this event and have eulogised at
length about the quality of the weather
and how it was the ideal break away
from the English winter. However, in 2023
things were somewhat di erent and for a
big chunk of my time there the weather
was just like being at home in the UK.
The first thing that became apparent
with this trip was the significant increase
in all aspects of the costs; from getting
there as well as being there. But it had to
14 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023
be done! I wanted to get back to Arizona
as this was to be my first ma or trip out
of the UK in three years. Once I’d arrived
in the there were some internal flight
issues caused by problems with the FAA
systems, but access through US security
caused no issue for me or the model
box.
TEST & SET-UP
On riday s arrival at the flying site
all was how I remembered it, and the
weather was perfect, so I set about
getting some test flying done. wasn t
the first there, ud omak from
California was also enjoying the ideal
conditions of wall-to-wall sunshine,
pleasant temperatures, and flat calm.
The organisers arrived and we soon
got into a debate about the weather that
was coming down from California. Two
storms bringing both wind and rain were
on there way and would arrive on Sunday
and Monday. A heavy snow fall had
already been reported in lagsta , which
is on higher ground and well to the North
of the facility we enjoy at Eloy, halfway
between hoeni and Tucson. The first
day of the three-day event, the Saturday,
was expected to be overcast but calm.
The site used at Eloy is half a mile
square and in normal conditions is more
 harlie ones in on the
single competition day.

Hardly a breath of wind and clear skies on the Ron Felix F1B with wide turbulator made from masking tape addon applied after advice from Alex
Friday, but much worse was forecast for later Andruikov.
in the weekend.

AeroModeller 1031 - 15
INTERNATIONAL FF
Bud Romak prepares to wind a model designed by Wally Simmers, a larger
Gollywok also by Wally.
Stepan Stepanchuk wing being used on an
F1Q by Jack Murphy.
Bud Romak, now 96 years young, discussing
Mulvihill design with Walt Ghio.
16 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023
he of harlie ones
than adequate. O the field there are
paddocks bounded by barbed wire,
these are negotiable, the worst ha ard is
the catclaw acacia bushes. The claws
on the bushes grab hold of lines as well
as giving a few punctures in covering.
The other real issue is the surface of the
site which is marginal desert that soon
becomes soggy in rain. n the normal
anuary conditions the site is perfect
but in wind and rain it becomes rather
di cult to use
CONDENSED EVENT
The organisers had faith in the forecast
and thus truncated the length of the
event from three days into a single day,
with all the and classes being
flown as best as was possible. s a result
of the forecast and recent bad weather
the entry was already reduced with no
shows, some unable to get there whilst
A Korda cabin model also from Bud Romak.
odel upplies aits for a test i ht.
others remained at home. few that had
got there decided to cut and run.
was primarily interested in the and
as predicted the weather that dawned
on aturday was O it was chilly, but
the drift was low. n these conditions,
as would be e pected, the ma es rolled
in. uring the middle of the day, when
it became flat calm, several in 1 had
di culty towing and keeping models
aloft on the line. rian van est, who is
on the glider team for the orld
hampionships, was unable to get
su cient launch tension on the line and
recorded a ero on the last two rounds.
n 1 only one person dropped a
flight during the rounds and that person
was me The variable tail incidence stuck
in power mode, and had to decide to
either allow the model to crash or save
model through radio eThermalising.
decide to save the model and recorded
 alt hio inds his for a rst round ma . alt stopped in as time as ti ht durin the
weather truncated event.

An F1S sized “Satellite” by Larry Norval.

Despite an absolutely cracking climb it failed
to reach the off.
A larger IC powered “Satellite”.

24 seconds - an attempt is 20 seconds.
In combined F1C/P Faust Parker had a
complete system failure in the first round
and piled in very hard destroying his
folded F1C. Not deterred Faust changed
classes and took first in 1 .
FLY OFFS
The fly o s were held in near perfect
conditions with both 1 and 1
going to two rounds. n the 1 fly o
the flappers of ndrew arron and im
arker had problems. im had a one flap
stick which tightened the glide whilst
ndrew arron pushed his model little
too hard to stall all the way down to the
ground.
n 1 and 1 erry itch showed
the rest of the field the way home. n
the conditions that are regular on this
field, all the locals trim their models
to a much wider turning circle that
we do here in the , thus enabling
a better glide performance. One thing
that was blatantly obvious in the dull,
dead overcast late afternoon, wide was
the ideal trim. erry itch s 1 only

rank enanno ulie aust arker at rest bet een i hts. Mike Rule with AMA Class A power winning model.

AeroModeller 1031 - 17
INTERNATIONAL FF
F1S from Jack Murphy.
executed one glide circle during its
superb minute winning fly o time. The
timing of all the flights of the 1 s was
enhanced using flashers. fterwards
erry itch had the flight profile of his
winning fly o from his idus system
displayed on his phone to show a steady
let down from the 1 metre climb to the
18 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023
Not a sight one sees in the UK!
ground to record a winning seconds.
alt hio who has made both the 1
and 1 team for this year s orld
hampionships in rance this ugust,
was launching his rubber powered 1
in power model style as the arthritis in his
hands now makes the traditional avelin
style launch di cult. ven the hardest
known thrower of 1 s, former orld
hampion erry itch, has cut back the
power in favour of a steady and more
accurate procedure.
s we are finding in the , 1 6
is getting more popular as the electric
power plants and systems improve, and
it took a reduction in the motor run down
 SWR FAI RESULTS:

F1A (11 FLEW) 1 2 3 4 5 F/O F/O F/O TOTAL

1 Enes Pecenkovic 180 180 180 180 180 360 304 1564
2 Andrew Barron 180 180 180 180 180 360 76 1336
3 Risto Puhakka 180 180 180 180 180 316 1216
4 Ken Bauer 180 180 180 180 180 278 1178
5 Jim Parker 180 180 180 180 180 222 1122
6 Jasminka Pecenkovic BIH 180 180 180 180 180 173 1073

F1B (8 FLEW) 1 2 3 4 5 F/O F/O F/O TOTAL

1 Jerry Fitch 180 180 180 180 180 360 425 1685
2 Charlie Jones 180 180 180 180 180 360 360 1620
3 Walt Ghio 180 180 180 180 180 360 350 1610
4 Larry Norval 180 180 180 180 180 360 320 1580

F1C/P (3 FLEW) 1 2 3 4 5 F/O F/O F/O TOTAL

1 Guy Menanno 180 180 180 180 180 900

F1G (5 FLEW) 1 2 3 4 5 F/O F/O F/O TOTAL

1 Jerry Fitch 120 120 120 120 120 240 840
Ti aney O ell 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
3 Geralyn Jones 120 120 120 120 120 180 780

F1H (3 FLEW) 1 2 3 4 5 F/O F/O F/O TOTAL

1 Blake Jensen 120 120 120 120 120 600

F1J (2 FLEW) 1 2 3 4 5 F/O F/O F/O TOTAL

1 Faust Parker 120 120 120 120 120 600

F1Q (2 FLEW) 1 2 3 4 5 F/O F/O F/O TOTAL

1 Julie Parker 180 180 180 180 180 280 1180

F1S (13 FLEW) 1 2 3 4 5 F/O F/O F/O TOTAL

1 George Morris 120 120 120 120 120 120 183 903
2 Charlie Morris 120 120 120 120 120 120 158 878
3 Frank Menanno 120 120 120 120 120 120 135 855
4 Rick Pangell 120 120 120 120 120 120 102 822
4= Jack Murphy 120 120 120 120 120 120 102 822
6 Julie Parker 120 120 120 120 120 116 716

to 5 seconds to decide a winner in the
fly o .
I saw little of the depleted ranks of the
flyers e cept for the regular roar
and spectacular climb from various sizes
of atellite . hoeni and the flight home.
As you would undoubtedly have Check out the SWR website for more
guessed, after the late weekend s information, images, and an entry form
atrocious weather the Tuesday turned for swregionals.org ■
out a nice day for the drive back to

err itch s innin aits for the off. ll black carbon sa e for a little eral n ones inds under the atchful e e of husband harlie for nd
da lo for isibilit . place in off.

AeroModeller 1031 - 19
FREE FLIGHT SCALE
EDF Jaguar
FF SCALE MODELLER IVAN TAYLOR SHARES PROGRESS ON HIS FIFTH EDF JET, A JAGUAR GR. 1
B
efore I start on the Jaguar
some of you may recall photos
of my replacement F-16 in
2022 AeroModellers. The
first one disappeared at Old
Warden, (I hate to use the word stolen.)
The new one was showing signs of being
very di cult to trim on the first session.
I was sure a few adjustments would
solve the problem and went back to the
20 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023
workshop.
Although my other EDF jets had been
easy to trim the first 16 was not, but
eventually flew well. o, was sure some
minor changes to the replacement would
do the trick. aving confidence that
with some minor work and a couple of
trimming flights all would be well, took
it to the cale ats for my electric
entry.
t was awful. ubsequent trimming
sessions tested my patience.
The issues were similar to that of the
first model but far more aggressive. was
unable to find longitudinal stability despite
using all the tricks we know. When I built
the new model I re-drew the fuselage
outline for better static marks. It was not
far out before, but trying hard I moved
the motor 25mm higher so that the outlet
 an a lor in his ori inal in cale at the ats. hoto b ndre oddin ton

would come central at the rear. to build. He has already purchased the 1954 just 2 miles from my home.
This meant that that the angle of the electronics. I do not intend to go into great detail
inlet tract had increased by about 4 The Jaguar is another safe layout with with the construction of this model as my
degrees. Most of the ducting is in front of low CG, plenty of sweep back and the techniques are the same as described in
the CG so the air pressure on the inclined generous tail that the more recent jets previous AeroModeller articles for you to
duct (forcing the nose down) was variable have. The motors are further apart than refer to, if you wish. The great joy for me is
during the power/glide phases. This the TSR2 but nothing like a Meteor (a jet I that the weight comes out at 305g which
e plains why the first model was di cult just love). Unfortunately, I saw one crash in is 49g lighter than the TSR2. The wing
to trim and the new one impossible (for
me).
To resolve the problem, I lowered
the motor and installed new ducting
tubes front and rear. Unfortunately the
scale accuracy of the rear end has been
compromised but I would rather have a
nicely flying model.
The above shows how these free flight
scale models can occasionally get you
thinking…

The Jaguar
The TSR 2 proved to be a successful
model and I fancied another twin.
There are many to choose from and the
Phantom was a strong contender. I will be
he replacement had the motor mounted hi her than on the ori inal but this altered the
drawing this up for a good friend of mine i ht trim.

AeroModeller 1031 - 21
FREE FLIGHT SCALE

The wings, the usual Dbox, using light 1/32

and 1/16 ribs.

This shows the timer, switch, battery box and

the two ESCs. The battery box is positioned
under the CG, this is the best aerodynamic
position (helping keep the extremities as light
as possible) and proved to be OK when the
model as nished. Ob iousl the batter
position can be used to get the CG in the
right place without resorting to extra ballast.

The fuselage structure with the two motors

and ducts installed. The majority of the wood
in this model is quarter grain. Straight grain is
used for block areas and fuselage curved areas.
The blocks are split after shaping and then
hollowed.

area is virtually the same, the span of the
Jaguar is 30"and it's 46"long (without the
probe, which I have omitted for safety.)
Clean
I have based this model on some good
photographs of an Indian air force Jaguar.
My disappointment is that it looks too
much like a model than a real aeroplane.
This is interesting, the photos of the full-
size show a very clean example.
y earlier scale e orts were better in this
respect. hen it has flown shall attack
it with some thin transparent washes of
acrylic etc. a technique which I can handle
and should do the trick. It will no doubt
need some patches after encountering
the elements during the trimming process.

Other components including the canopy mould plug top right. The all moving My method of making decals - painted on tissue and applied to the model
tailplane is ideal for trimming. The wheels are fun to make. To replicate the with spray adhesive.
incredibly complex undercarriage faithfully would not be beyond me, but I
will leave it to those with more commitment and patience.

22 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023

 o a oid the star ed horse effect on the cur ed areas black tissue co erin he nished a uar is too clean at present and once test o n ill be
and sanded li ht ei ht ller. he bare ood areas can no be painted ith dirtied .
acr lic black. ll the unco ered areas ha in had man coats of sandin
sealer usin talc dope. ee ecember for more details.

This will be a good starting point for some
distressing. The watercolour of some
Jaguars which I painted in the 70's is more
convincing than the model!
s well as scale model flying have
committed myself to a busy season
flying duration. ork has to be done
with those models but will do as many
scale contests as possible. do like the
stopwatch for deciding the result!
can be ad usted to alter the incidence of
one half of the wing to the other. This can
be part of my trimming procedure.
ecause the dowels are kept relatively
short the wing can move away from the
fuselage in a bad landing. In practice
this works well. eorge oster has used
breakable soft balsa dowels on his scale
models. This is a system, that unlike mine,
could be described as true knock o
Piano wire dowels in brass tubes in the
top wing of a biplane does give me the
shivers, but it does save repairs if you
crash a lot. ■

One Piece
The aguar and all my previous scale
models all 1 of them, it s too many are
one piece. ith the ets this have never
been a problem, and the rubber models
have plug in wings which don't damage
the fuselage in a crash. The biplanes have
su ered but repairs are part of the fun.
have been ama ed at what ike mith
and ill ennis get away with their ric
oates inspired but heavy systems. am
lucky in having a trimming area covered in
heather, and of course gyro models don t
lon term fa ourite an a lor s atercolour of a uars from .
land with one wing down!
All the low wing models, both rubber
and power, have wings which plug into
the fuselage via tubes in the wing and
protruding dowels in the fuselage. These
dowels not designed to be sacrificial
are either alloy tubes or carbon rod and
go straight through the fuselage and are
well secured on a former. The wing tubes
are well supported and glued behind the
Dbox.
The wings plug onto the dowels. The
rear dowel tube near the T is very small
and is there to support the wing and keep
the angle of incidence. The rear tube
in the fuselage does not go all the way
through but is 2 tubes one each side, these
PUBLIC PROFILE

Model Aircraft
Exhibitions
YOUR EDITOR LOOKS BACK TO THE HEYDAY OF AEROMODELLING AND MODEL ENGINEERING
BEING PRESENTED TO THE PUBLIC

of attending with my late father, first at

F
or many years, this issue of and see new products, and a chance to
AeroModeller would have Earls Court and later at ‘Ally Pally’ in that catch up with friends from around the
seen coverage from indoors early New Year lull – from the 70’s up to country during the o season. There was
at a large hall gathering the turn of the century it was a wonderful even the chance to fly, with hantom
enthusiasts and trade stands spectacle with the best of aeromodelling racing and ad flying two or three
for the Model Engineering Exhibition and model engineering craftsmanship, function RC PAW 0.55cc diesel powered
and its like. I have treasured memories the opportunity to stock up on items sports models indoors! We’re not likely to
ero odeller ma a ine as the insti ator of the ational odel ircraft hibition the rst of hich as in anuar .
 en in the s the odel n ineerin hibition had a lar e in lo el ran e of ills replicas ith a capacit of . cc to cc produced b
models component. enr icholls ud in the static competition entries. erek iles and on sho at the hibition. hoto b a id oddin ton
hoto b a id oddin ton

ho can for et the li hter than air blimp oatin o er the e hibition he kept aeromodellin in the public e e at the .
stands o n b on oulton seen under the n. hoto b a id oddin ton

get that opportunity again… nfortunately, it seems that another

d ert from ecember for the rst
ational odel ircraft hibition held at
orland all in o er e ent treet ondon.
The 21st Century has seen a gradual victim of the ovid pandemic has been any
decline in the model aviation component sort of the last was in and
at the London Model Engineering there appears to be no plans to resurrect
Exhibition (LMEE), although the BMFA it. loss not ust for aeromodellers but the
and specialist groups such as the LMA whole of model engineering whether on
(Large Model Association) have kept the land, water or in the air.
flag flying for build and fly aeromodelling.
lso teve idson, under the umbrella of Glory Days
the BMFA, did a sterling job introducing The post years of the late s and
young people to the oys of indoor foam s probably saw the peak numbers
aeromodelling. for people taking up and participating in

arch and pril sa full e hibition

co era e in ritten b a rence pare .
r rocter s rst pri e innin uration
lass model.

he inclusion of electric po ered

ound he ole as a bi dra . his iles
a ister as in in the opposite direction
to normal con ention it apparentl ore
out a pair of heels and t o electric motors
to co er miles of in AeroModeller 1031 - 25
PUBLIC PROFILE

The guide for the Second Exhibition is well put

together with a colourful card cover, and includes
adverts from the likes of Astral and FROG.

oth uides include uirk cartoons b aeromodeller art teacher a almstr m.

aeromodelling. Being ‘air-minded’ was
seen as a positive thing, with building
and flying model aircraft a formative
e perience which would ready a youth
for an interesting and productive
professional life. t is thanks to ick
ough and his father avid that can
share with you a snapshot of those times
with uides from ritain s ational odel
ircraft hibition.
ooking back m surprised to find
that the first of these e hibitions took

Much as D A Russell is to be admired for

organizing these events, I think it shows
an ama in amount of self con dence to
put together this page in the guide entitled
‘Leaders’, comparing himself with (middle)
Lord Brabazon England’s pilot No 1, and
belo ord ake eld.
The text in the second guide makes a special note of the new “Diesel Engines” explaining ‘these are
really compression ignition engines, and do away with all the electrical paraphernalia that have done
so much to add weight and complications to the petrol model.’

The report in February 1946 AM includes this striking photo of the twin engine RTP Vickers Viking
takin off from a erspe landin strip no seen to be rotatin in the normal anti clock ise direction.

26 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023 he third and nal odel ircraft hibition
was a joint endeavour between AeroModeller
and The Daily Express.
One of the RTP circles was a pool containing
ater to facilitate the in of oatplanes.
place in January 1945, when the war in
Europe was still raging. Despite rationing
of most of the essentials for everyday
life, D A Russell the editor and publisher
of AeroModeller (as well as publishing
Harborough Books, and the setting up of
Eaton Bray Model Aircraft Sportsdrome)
believed he could make a success of the
exhibition. I don’t have the guide from
this first e hibition, but the arch and
April 1945 AM’s have a full report on the
event, some of which is reproduced here.
The major components of aeromodelling
as we know it today were beginning
to appear, although it was still too
early for CL and RC. There was an
emphasis on research and development
of aeromodelling, with 1st prize in the
Experimental class competition going
to a wind tunnel built by members of
the Low Speed Aerodynamics Research
iesels no had their o n corner and
nother inno ation as this model of a ampire po ered b one of the rst s stems
(described as an ‘electric air jet’) – it even had retracts!
Association.
The exhibition ran again the following
two years with the third exhibition
being a joint event, still at Dorland Hall,
with The Daily Express newspaper. It
is interesting to see the development
of aeromodelling technology even in
this short two year period with diesels
appearing in the December 1945 to
January 1946 guide for the second event The Dorland Hall venue lent its name to this
AeroModeller design which was the subject of a
(but no mention of glows), and a pool for competition which attracted 2,500 examples built!
floatplanes being available at the third.
can find no details of subsequent
Model Aircraft Exhibition events
organized by D A Russell, and can only
hazard a guess that problems with the
Eaton Bray expansion were beginning to
impact some of his activities. While they
lasted, it was an amazing achievement to
bring aeromodelling to the wider public
through these events. ■
inall lor da s for ero odeller. his is a
photo of a dedicated displa of ero odellers in
ei hton u ard mith ne sa ents.
models made their rst appearance.
AeroModeller 1031 - 27
 FREE PLAN

T
here is nothing quite like
setting fire to a flammable
liquid especially if you want
to get somewhere fast or
travel long distances. lectric
flight may be aeromodelling s free gift
to the world of full si ed aviation, but
when it comes to that asy et flight to a
hen night in rague, batteries ust don t
cut it. hat we need is an energy dense
replacement for kerosene, that burns
cleanly in a gas turbine engine, and emits
absolutely no carbon dio ide, and there
is one at hand

Hydrogen
kilogram of liquid hydrogen packs
three times the punch of ordinary et
fuel for the same weight. The gas phase
can be produced by cracking water
apart using direct solar radiation and a
catalyst, or from renewable electricity by
passing a current through it. bit more
electricity from wind turbines or solar
panels to drive a oule Thomson cooler
and you have your carbon free liquid fuel
ready to go. urning the stu ust turns
it back into water vapour, along with
perhaps a smidgeon of nitrous o ide
which can be managed down by engine
tuning. t s literally rocket fuel so why are
we not etting o abroad with it already
There s always a catch. iquid
hydrogen might be lightweight, but
alas, our kilogram of fuel takes up
multiple times the volume of its kerosene
equivalent. n fact we need to plan our
fuel tanks to be four times larger . Oh,
and did mention that the liquid phase
only e ists below minus degrees
elsius. That s a chilly twenty degrees
above absolute ero. Only liquid helium
is colder more about that later . ou

ECO-FLY
28 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023
YER
The 66cm span twin rubber powered Eco-
Flyer is your own No-Carbon prototype of
future air travel.

ANOTHER QUIRKY DESIGN FROM THE CAD PEN OF GARETH

EVANS IS A SEMI-SCALE MODEL OF A POSSIBLE NO-CARBON
EMISSION TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT OF THE FUTURE

AeroModeller 1031 - 29
 FREE PLAN

or most of the fuel trying to boil away,

we need something better than foam
round our fuel tank. n fact, we need
the device used to keep your tea warm
on a day trip to Old Warden. Invented
in 1 by ames ewar, the vacuum
flask is old technology. f you live in a
large town, chances are you are sitting
not a few miles away from a chilly
cauldron of liquid helium used to cool the
superconducting magnets in the local
hospitals scanner. ewar flasks are
great for keeping things cold as well as
hot.
Now we have worked out how to
contain the stu , we need to think about
where on the aircraft to put it. With the
wing compulsorily empty, our fuel tank
becomes extra wetted area. No matter
what we do, there has to be an increase
in parasitic drag over a conventional
Eco-Flyer designer Gareth Evans has 30 years’ experience of working in aerospace, an involvement in aeroplane.
HPA (Human Powered Aeroplanes), and an interest in CAD, maths and physics as well as being a full- Breguets famous range equation
sized hang glider pilot. He previously worked with John Edgeley at Edgeley Sailplanes, and is seen here
with his Ebenezer model of the Edgeley Optica. (Photo by Andrew Boddington) contains terms (unsurprisingly) for fuel
consumption, lift drag ratio, and a
can forget about just opening a cap and in minutes. eanwhile, back in the logarithmic term for the weight of the
pouring it into the wing internal space… real world, our regional airline flight to machine with a full load of fuel divided
NASA gets away with coating space Newcastle has been sat on the runway by the weight with all fuel used up. As
rockets with that orange foam to keep fully fuelled with liquid hydrogen for a paper e ercise, we tried converting
their hydrogen propellant from boiling an hour, while the baggage handlers a wings-worth of conventional jet fuel
away. aunchers are filled up ust before struggle to close a cargo door. To stop from an ATR 42 turboprop transport into
blast o , and the contents is used up our steed getting encrusted in frost, the energy equivalent volume of liquid

more
ou can nd out
e
about NASA’s us
d the
of hydrogen an
n
thermal protectio
systems on the
k
149-foot-long tan
unch
for the Space La
their
System rocket at
sa.gov
website www.na

Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) is a joint

industry and government initiative which
aims to create the technology strategy for the
UK aerospace sector and funds world-class
research and development. Their FlyZero
aircraft concepts together with technology
roadmaps set out the pathway for the
accelerated introduction of hydrogen powered
aircraft. Go to website ati.org.uk
 FIG. 1.
hydrogen, then estimated the wetted
area and therefore percentage increase
in drag incurred by an external tank.
Now you are going to remind me that
the liquid hydrogen is substantially lighter
than the jet fuel, so the increase in drag
is cancelled out by a weight reduction.
Not so, we found. Conservatively scaling
up the empty weight of typical aluminium
laboratory ewar flasks, we discovered
that the mass di erence between
hydrogen and kerosene is probably
cancelled out by the empty weight of
tank and pipework. Range/Payload
equivalence between kerosene and liquid
hydrogen is not worth pursuing.
Damage limitation to our aircraft’s
performance might best be achieved
by putting our hydrogen tank inside the
fuselage cabin, preferably on top of the
centre of gravity… where it would block
the route to one or other of the two
compulsory emergency exits! Putting it
behind the rear pressure bulkhead would
make the aircraft more and more nose
heavy as the journey progressed. You’d
need a big tailplane to compensate, and
trim drag would wipe out your wetted
area minimisation plan in the second half
of a flight. ow do you feel about sitting
in front of, underneath, or behind a huge
simmering can of liquid hydrogen? Over
a wide range of percentages, hydrogen
gas leaks form a flammable mi ture
with air, and in the case of complete
tank rupture, they might be chipping
you out of your seat fish finger fro en
passengers!
Twin
Legendary designer Burt Rutan showed
us how to manage such a range and
fuel volume challenge in his round the
world Voyager and Virgin Global Flier
designs: The answer’s a twin boom
of course. Much better we think to
have four identical Dewar tanks, two
in each boom; one in front of the CG
and one behind, with a well protected
undercarriage bay between them, and all
the fuel paraphernalia away from people,
duplicated in each boom. To hell with the
parasitic drag!
heck out my cross section view of
what one of these twin booms might
contain in Figure 1. At the top of each
aerodynamic fairing, running fore and aft
of the main wing spars, we have a sti
cantilevered keel beam. This carries both
tanks, suspended from mounting lugs
via load cells. an you imagine a float
type liquid level indicator bobbing up
and down reliably at minus 253 degrees
Celsius? Much better, we think, to keep
A possible dual hydrogen tank per
boom con uration.
tabs on the overall mass of each tank in
1 flight, and calculate how much fuel
we have left over than rely on a float.
These tanks need to be replaceable
periodically via “bomb doors” on the
boom fairings as an aspect of routine
maintenance. They are almost drop
tanks. Liquid hydrogen after all, is just
a big wet puddle of protons. The stu
can work its way out through all sorts
of gaps, including the crystal lattice
structure of metals. The e ect is called
hydrogen embrittlement. Repeated
filling and emptying of such tanks also
fatigues the metal through expansion
and contraction. Think about it; room
temperature to liquid hydrogen is more
than twice that of boiling the kettle.
andily our keel beam also connects
to the undercarriage gear bracket. The
diameter of the boom allows space for
a parallelogram landing gear like the
Westland Wasp helicopter. Deployed,
this puts the wheels out of line with the
boom, preventing tyre shed or runway
debris flung up, from hitting our fuel
system. All pipework from the rear tank
goes up and over the landing gear bay,
inside the keel beam itself.
For easy maintenance we suspend
our specially tuned turboshaft engine
at the very front of the keel beam,
AeroModeller 1031 - 31
 FREE PLAN – ECO-FLYER TWIN
PLAN 721 IN AEROMODELLER 1031 APRIL 2023
FREE PLAN
FIG. 2.
using it to transmit thrust loads into
the wing. Notice that we have chosen
to put the heat exchanger, converting
liquid hydrogen into gas, in the air inlet,
not, as you might think, in the exhaust.
Cooling down the inlet air acts like a
supercharger, making the air denser
before it is further compressed in the
engine. n e ect this means our plane
can use a physically smaller power plant.
We just need an air-side to hydrogen-
side area ratio for the heat exchanger big
enough to prevent icing.
Getting our fuel to that heat exchanger
is another problem with an unusual
answer. Check out Figure 2, where I have
sectioned a tank. It’s not unlike a control
line stunt job, complete with a chicken
hopper to make sure fuel is captured
during manoeuvres. It has a fuel pick-up
where you most expect the fuel to get
flung. Trying to suck the fuel up using
an e ternal pump would be futile. The
stu would boil the instant it struck an
impeller at ambient temperature. Our
Hydrogen tank details.
centrifugal pump is completely immersed
in liquid hydrogen, with the fuel sloshing
about inside it to lubricate the bearings.
We have arranged for the maximum
possible head of fuel to exist above the
impeller inlet to avoid bubbles forming
and prevent any cavitation problems.
We have also avoided any kind of gland
to an e ternal motor. The impeller shaft
has permanent magnets around it and
is magnetically coupled to an armature
in the vacuum space of the Dewar tank.
Innovative? Not really, this is how your
washing machine pump works!
Like a control line tank, we also
include a vent, but that’s not to allow air
to replace lost fuel. Heaven forbid! We
need to keep the whole system free of
air. oil o hydrogen gas is unavoidable,
and its production will just outpace the
consumption of liquid fuel pumped to
the heat e changer. The vent uses a
lightly loaded non-return valve to ensure
the tank maintains a miniscule positive
pressure irrespective of flying altitude, so
no air can get in. Notice that we attempt
not to waste the boil o gas. have
included a T oint so some of it can be
diverted to the aircrafts auxiliary power
unit, which could be a conventional
turbine or perhaps a fuel cell. Liquid
natural gas tankers at sea actually use
this trick as well for propulsion.
efore we fill up our aeroplane, the
whole system will be full of air. You notice
that our friend helium is useful here. It’s
piped from a small tank to purge the
system before we put liquid hydrogen in,
and is the only gas that doesn’t liquefy
or freeze solid in the presence of liquid
hydrogen. aboratory ewar flask often
have tapered necks so that frozen plugs
of nitrogen get blown out by any boil o
pressure.
Tank aspect ratio is important too.
Ideally, we’d use spheres, which have the
lowest weight, cost and surface area for
their volume. Great for ballooning only.
The ne t best thing is a cylindrical tank
with identical length and diameter, plus
the industry standard elliptically domed
ends.
Practicality?
To investigate further, we compiled wing
geometry and max fuel load data from as
many regional turboprops as we could
find on ikipedia. f you know a fuel
volume, an average chord and a span,
you can calculate an average wing tank
depth, thus simplifying any conventional
fuel load into a cuboid. From our Excel
spreadsheet we derived a simple
equation predicting the equivalent liquid
hydrogen volume for any wing design
you like. Then we added formulae which
calculated dimensions for cylindrical
Dewar tanks of any chosen aspect ratio
to match.
ow check out igure . That 1 1 tank
makes for a very chubby twin boomed
aircraft with lots of wasted internal
space. In contrast, a tank aspect ratio
of 1 places the engines well ahead of
the cockpit, and gives the machine a
dreadful atan s trident look The best
compromise seems to be the 1 aspect
ratio. The surface area to volume ratio is
hardly worse than the ideal.
By now you are scratching your
heads. Haven’t I seen something like
this before? An aeroplane with a carbon
neutral power source, distributed
AeroModeller 1031 - 33
 FREE PLAN – ECO-FLYER TWIN
PLAN 721 IN AEROMODELLER 1031 APRIL 2023
 FREE PLAN
FIG. 3.
longitudinally, with equal stored energy
fore and aft of the CG? Our hydrogen
powered job emerges from exactly the
same rules used to design a traditional
rubber powered model. We used our
spreadsheet to do just that. The twin
booms on this month’s Free Plan
really are accurately sized to represent
hydrogen volume equivalent to jet fuel
in that tissue covered wing. Many of
you remember when the future of flight
was embodied in the sleek arrow of
Concorde. Today it looks like a toasting
fork with three Frankfurters on it. Let’s
build one now.
The Build
This is not quite a beginner’s model, and
quite fiddley in places. oth fuselage
and booms are built using half formers
on a sheet balsa crutch. All the external
surfaces are cones or cylinders, meaning
that sheeting can be done in “one shot”
in most cases. There are some short
36 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023
The boom cross-section implications of
different tank aspect ratios.
A compass cutter with a sharp blade is a
useful tool for cutting formers.
The main undercarriage wire is sandwiched
between two half formers.
Once the boom half formers are stuck on the
crutch, you can sheet the nose cone.
cuts to take in cutting out parts if you
first have to hand a compass cutter, and
a piece of 5/8 inch diameter K&S brass
tube - sharpened at one end to a bevel
edge. Let’s tackle one of the booms.
Cut out the crutch from 1.5mm light
balsa. This is the inner line on the plan.
With your sharpened 5/8th tube cut
a circle as shown at either end, and
carefully make this into a round ended
slot by joining the two holes with a
stroke of the scalpel against a steel
rule. How does the rubber motor exit
the boom at the front, if we are only
cutting a slot atience you will find
out in a few paragraphs time. Next,
using your compass cutter for the outer
diameter and sharpened tube for the
inner diameter, make six identical donuts
from 1. mm balsa. t s handy to first cut
these from a copy of the plan and spray-
mount them to the balsa. The width of Sheet the rear end cone next, and when that
the crutch can then be accurately cut is set complete the half shell with the centre
sheeting.
away to make these into half donuts.
 FREE PLAN
The boom has had the missing half-formers added including the
undercarriage wire. Note you have a central space for the rubber.
The fuselage construction is similar to the booms, and has a nose wheel sandwiched between the half formers.
Two of these donut halves sandwich the
undercarriage. Prick through to mark the
wire groove position before peeling o
the paper template. Solid circles of balsa
are cut for the nose former, tail former
and one intermediate former where the
leading edge of the tailplane will sit.
Divide these as before.
Bend up the undercarriage wire. I
used 19 SWG (1mm) wire and broached
the hole on a 1 inch Guillow’s wheel to
fit perfectly. etain with a few turns of
button thread dabbed with cyano. ith
the point of a needle file, scribe a groove
to bury the undercarriage between
two of your half donuts, and cement
them together. As marked on the plan,
cement one sides worth of half formers
onto the crutch. Try and get these as
perpendicular as possible, perhaps using
a square block to prop them while the
glue dries.
Take a sheet of paper and wrap it
round the nose half former and the first
half donut. Mark the outboard edges
with a propelling pencil, with the lead
extended to get inside the curves. No
two builders will create e actly the same
38 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023
You can use rubber bands when completing the boom nose sheeting.
paper template, due to the nature of
balsawood. ut out your particular shape
and use it to rough cut the lightest,
most fle ible . mm sheet balsa in your
collection. trial fit should reveal it s
slightly too big. e are aiming to create a
ledge for the adjacent sheet to sit on, so
that just one half of the crutch thickness
and one half of the donut thickness
needs to be covered at a time. Trim and
sand back your sheeting piece, noting
that an overlap of the nose former does
not matter; it can be cut back later.
ement the upper edge only over half
the crutch thickness and wait for the glue
to dry. ow boil the kettle and waive the
area being sheeted through the steam,
taking care not to burn your fingers.
The sheeting piece will curve round
nicely, all by itself. quee e cement onto
the formers and roll the sheet round
to cover half the opposite edge of the
crutch using masking tape to secure.
You should have created one half of a
truncated cone.
It’s tempting now to repeat the
e ercise for the central cylindrical
sheeting. recommend actually making
the other truncated cone section at the
tail end first. herever the forward edge
of the balsa ends up for the tail cone
will determine e actly how you trim the
rectangular sheeting to go in the middle.
n all cases, try cementing ust one
edge to the crutch and the boiling kettle
method to persuade the sheeting to form
round the curve. Tidy up any blobs of
glue or mismatched edges. You have
now made a very small rowing scull. t
just remains to repeat the whole process
on the other side of the crutch. I bet all
the sheeting does not line up perfectly.
obody will notice from ten yards away.
ow we have the clever bit. Trim o
any overhang of sheeting from the nose
to leave the first half formers flat and
square. Cut out the nose reinforcement
disc from . mm ply sheet, complete
with square nose block hole and cement
this in place. With a sharp No 11 craft
blade, cut through the square hole
removing the solid half formers and
a piece of the crutch, as if one were
rescuing a person bricked up into a room
in some horror movie. The inside of the
boom does not need to be pretty, as long

Cement the ply nose disc on boom nose F6
then cut through to allow passage of rubber
and prop shaft.
Prepared nose block and prop assemblies.
The fuselage nose block has a cavity to
accept weight shot when balancing the
model.
A 90 degree metal extrusion is a handy jig when constructing the wing mounts.
as there is now space for a motor hook
to turn.
Make a second template for the rear
tapered end by wrapping paper around,
between the sheeting joint lines top and
bottom. Cut this half cone out and fold
it in half along its length. Use the plan to
locate and mark the motor peg position
on the crease line. Prick through with
a pin into the balsa, and then carefully
work the motor peg holes out, testing for
tightness against a piece of 3mm dowel
peg. The sheeting alone won’t bear
motor tension, so a small ring cut from
0.4mm ply, using sharpened brass tubing
is cemented on either side. The diameter
is small, and the ply does not need to be
pre-curved to the boom diameter at that
location.
Follow the same procedure to make
the fuselage. The compass cutter is
used to add some lightening holes to
the central crutch. These, incidentally,
are very useful if you need to access the
inside of the half-built job to add a dab of
cement to sheeting that has come drift.
Fuselage covering pieces are from light
0.8mm sheet as before, but are wide
enough to require edges to be joined
fore and aft. It’s easier to do this before
application, laying two shop bought
edges together and running sticky tape
along to make a hinge. Flip your sheets
over, open the hinge and then run a bead
of cement down it before closing up and
leaving to set for twenty minutes. Don’t
forget to bend up and sandwich your
nose gear to the first half former before
closing up the space with sheeting.
The finishing touches to the boom
woodwork consist of two classic push fit
nose blocks, carved and sanded to blend
to the forward sheeting. We used some
plastic injection moulded prop buttons
into which the 19SWG prop shaft was
a rattling good fit. On our model this
takes out a little bit of the built in down
thrust as the motors are tensioned. Try to
find wire and buttons which are a good
fit. The down thrust is quite important.
We chose IGRA six-inch propellers and
made a pigtail in the wire to engage the
moulded freewheel dog and provide a
loop for stretch winding.
The fuselage woodwork also has a
carved nose block, which must have
a cavity cut in the first lamination to
contain lead shot for balance. Cut the
cavity out with a convenient piece of
sharpened brass tube. Exact size is not
critical but we used the 5/8 tool again.
Make sure there is a groove connecting
this cavity to the outside world big
enough to load shot through.
There is not much to say about the
wings, if you have already built rubber
powered models before. We made a ply
template for the centre section where all
the ribs are the same, but cut out and
spray mounted paper templates to the
wood for the other ribs. Cut from card or
balsa the template on the plan to set the
end ribs to the dihedral angle. Where the
fuselage and booms are attached, cut
runners from 1.6mm sheet and fit these
flush with the ribs, leading edge, trailing
edge and wing under surface where
shown.
The three wing mounts are rectangular
frames with the sides cut to give three
degrees angle of attack relative to both
booms and fuselage. Make the front and
AeroModeller 1031 - 39
 FREE PLAN
A trial assembly held together by sheering
elastic to ensure everything aligns.
back of each frame with the crescent cut
out a little under size. Glue everything
together square and then wrap some
fine sand paper round a boom or the
fuselage, then sand the wing mounts
to fit the curvature e actly. arefully
measure and mark the centre of each
mount and cement them symmetrically
over the sheeting join line on the booms
and fuselage.
I’ve left that inverted V tailplane until
o er and decorate the components before nal assembl .
40 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023
last. It really is easy to make from light
mm square balsa. t the ape of ust
one half of the V, add an additional length
of 3mm square, and use this to set a
right angle between the two. Sand the
leading and trailing edges round, but
nothing else of course.
over the wings and tailplane and
dope them before trying to assemble
the model. We used Japanese tissue
and Eze Dope thinned 60/40 with water.
In contrast, we used traditional banana
oil on the fuselage and booms, leaving
them in natural wood, just adding tissue
trim and the all-important “HYDROGEN”
logo.
If I had chosen to design a model even
slightly bigger than this, I’d have been
forced to rubber band it all together
for practicality, creating some kind of
une ploded elastic bomb which might fly
apart on every arrival. At 660mm span,
it’s sensible to make a one-piece model
though. efore finally cementing the
booms, wings, fuselage and tail together,
I recommend lashing it all up with some
sheering elastic, lining everything up
carefully by eye and checking symmetry
with a steel ruler. Then make some pencil
marks here and there before applying
cement. Once it’s together, it’s too late
to correct a misalignment. The top of the
V tail needs to be at zero degrees, the
wings at plus three degrees.
fter some e perimentation we settled
on four strands of 3/32 inch rubber in
each boom, about 310mm (one foot)
long. I recommend installing these
motors by standing the model, nose up,
balanced on the inverted V-tail. Stretch
the motor over a stick just long enough
to tension it and feed it down through all
those donuts. Take your time to capture
both loops through the motor peg. Push
weight shot, easily found in fishing tackle
shops, through the hole you remembered
to cut, into the nose block, until the
model balances where shown on the
plan.
Flying
I thought I would have to make a
Monique Lyons style multiple propeller
retaining yolk to fly a twin rubber ob
single handed, until I spotted a YouTube
video of Mike Stuart demonstrating his
Malmstrom, Handley Page Herald at Port
Meadow. With the addition of a single
clever wheeze, Mike’s technique works
perfectly for the Eco Flyer too.
Tie a loop in some brightly coloured
ribbon (so you can spot it in the grass)
just long enough to go around the nose
gear and reach one of the propeller
blades. or lone flying, have my night
and Pridham winder, lashed to a kitchen
The Eco-Flyer is zero-emission thanks to
your hand winding of the rubber!
spatula which can be gripped between
my knees while I squat down. Wind
about 150 turns to begin with onto the
port boom. Use the loop of ribbon to
hold the propeller stationary while you
apply 150 turns to the starboard boom.
Are you right-handed? Thought so!
With your left hand holding the starboard
propeller, use your right hand to press
the port propeller to your chest and allow
the ribbon loop to fall to the grass. Now
walk to your launch point, pick your
moment, and in one smooth motion,
turn the model into wind and launch,
releasing both propellers simultaneously.
Your 150 turns will give you an
extended glide. Once you work up to
200 turns, you will notice the torque on
this model is tremendous. Another good
wheeze here is to add a few more turns
to the port motor, just to widen out that
left turn. With approximately 300 turns,
my Eco Flyer does two wide circles,
using slightly unmatched turns to trim
the circuit.
our model should fly as well as mine
does, but pause a moment on your
retrieval walk, and take a good look at
it. Try to visualise it without the twin
booms. Try to imagine it with a normal
tailplane. ou can see it might fly even
better than it does. What our experiment
really shows is that hydrogen, as a
fuel, will work for passenger aircraft,
but that government legislation will
have to mandate its use over kerosene.
There is a tipping point, where so much
renewable electricity is required for
electrolysis of water, it makes more
sense to invest in an electrified rail link
where one can be built. The future of
air travel beyond the mid-2030s might
ust be a lot more trains, and a fleet of
Eco Flyers, carrying (maybe?) 40 to 100
passengers each on domestic routes,
flying low enough and slow enough to
avoid creating giant contrails from all that
burnt hydrogen.
Your model is guilt free however. It’s
made of wood and paper, sealed and
stuck together with cellulose resins,
with engines made of natural rubber,
containing the energy stored from that
bowl of breakfast cereal you ate today.
From twisted rubber to lithium polymer
cells, aeromodelling is the ultimate
pioneer of sustainable flying. ■
AeroModeller 1031 - 39
 Engine & Kit Auction

BMFA Auction 2
– the Sequel! Never mind the
quality, feel the bandwidth!
NIGEL MONK GIVES A PERSONAL VIEW scrutiny how should we assess this new

O
OF THE SECOND BMFA MODEL ENGINE
AND AIRCRAFT AUCTION WHICH WAS
A TWO DAY ONLINE ONLY SALE IN
EARLY JANUARY 2023
K, one or two comments
in my previous review
(January 2023 AM) may
have been a bit harsh but I
have a viewpoint which I’ve
discussed with the BMFA and on some
we ve agreed to di er. lease insert your
own e clamation marks henceforth.
equels to successful entertainment
are often given intense even critical
service o ering from the e
should consider each interested party s
perspective.
f the organisation previously was
good, the performance this time was
very good. f the system performance
previously was ok was in person
on th October so only had the
auctioneer s monologue to udge

ust a fraction of the kits a ailable at the second odel n ine and ircraft uction lar e kits mostl radio small kits mostl free i ht

42 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023


Rare cats; collection of relatively unknown Jaguar engines. They respectively made £120, £90, £80, £80,
all +12%.
online bidding by, but there were many
rejoinders to bid more quickly – this time
it was very good, from my own online
experience. If the photographs and
descriptions were good before, these
were very good, as befits an online only
auction. Two photographs per lot were
adequate and were well composed
and detailed, and frankly better than
commercial auction houses often
provide. All bidders received an itemised
VAT invoice via email in a timely fashion –
perfectly matching commercial practice.
Seller’s Choice?
Sellers should be well pleased with the
BMFA Auction. The unsold rate reduced
from 10% of lots to only 21 lots or 4%.
Of these, some were of high value like
the Ridley Major and Cornell .061 that
failed from the last bidder standing issue.
28 of the 36 previously unsold lots were
re entered and of those or sold,
generally after slightly reduced estimates.
Naturally, from a seller’s perspective,
prices felt weak, but it would be di cult
to find anyone else to sell your items
on your behalf at such low cost (£2
T per lot . ven e y charges
12.6% to sellers. Commercial resellers
only o er around of an engine s
value. lus find it takes in total an hour
per item on average to e ecute an e y
sale. How should one accomplish that if
there are 400 items in your collection?
It’s regrettable to note that most large
collections committed to any auction are
via a deceased aeromodeller’s estate.
The same was true here, as it will be at
a planned Gildings auction in the spring.
ecutors and or relatives may not be
aeromodellers, as commercial auction
survive at even 20% +VAT gross margin,
but it will be a poorer hobby when they
have all been put out of business. So
it is fortuitous that the winter period,
when all but the most robust models and
modellers have hibernated, allows the
BMFA auction team capacity to organise
these auctions. Their costs, in some
economic models, would be considered
sunk . suspect the total person hours
input to the venture will be of the same
order as 11 times 1 hour, but with some
helpful economies of scale.
Online Only
This auction was online only, for good
reasons, so all bidders were in the same
cauldron. ‘The IT equipment we have
houses generally are not. The BMFA is what we have to work with’ works
auction team aim to o er a sympathetic, both ways but I am happy to dispel my
as well as expert, service. assertion that slow bidding might equally
be caused by internet speeds anywhere
Buyer’s View between a bidder’s ‘client’ and the
Prices, from my perspective, were auction software. I started the day using
strong, but still well below eBay prices. a indows 1 hard wired to my
There is easily margin to outbid the router on the cheapest Virgin broadband
collectors and resellers if you’re buying but the webpage curled up its toes as
for yourself, but they will know what each soon as the live streaming video started.
engine is worth or can be sold on at. In contrast, my older W7 laptop coped
Come and join in – the more the merrier, via WiFi perfectly well. I note that other
and the higher the prices, but look on the bidding platforms such as the saleroom.
positive side that benefits your , com or easyliveauction.com manage
and the sellers. to turn o my video but keep sound
As we’ve noted, the BMFA commission and progress live when there is a weak
rates are well below commercial rates. I signal slow speed. That s great service.
doubt many businesses – model shops, Of the potential bidders I’ve managed
manufacturers, publishers, etc could to discuss the situation with, 7 out of
This is (most of) what your browser window will look like if you follow the auction live. My screen, at
1600x900 resolution, could not display the top of the two images and the bidding buttons at the same
time. he latter are off the bottom . he ome bout s ore... banner needs to be oatin ith the
te t abo e it so it scrolls out of the a . lso the en ine ima e doesn t uite t ithin the indo
although Bruce is elegantly arrayed. One can click through the engine image but will still need to grab
and move the image to view each corner. Not really practical in the 45 seconds each lot is live but
probably OK once get used to it, now you know how.
AeroModeller 1031 - 43
Engine & Kit Auction
Ten bidders took home half the lots between them; more than 100 shared the remainder.
10 achieved a clearly instant response
after their button-pressing. Any bids I
missed were entirely due to slow mental
faculties, usually from thinking ‘that looks
cheap’ on a lot I hadn’t planned to bid
on...
Bruce Collinson, our experienced,
expert and volunteer auctioneer, FRICS
and lifelong aeromodeller, aimed at and
met a rate of 80 lots per hour. It didn’t
feel rushed to me; the regular ciggy
breaks helped all us ageing gentlemen
and ladies manage our toilet breaks.
Mind you, I thought the last such at
1.00pm would be longer for lunch
so missed a few lots while having a
Stunning collection of Oliver marks and clones. The cheapest by CS
was 1/10th the price of the dearest (Rothwell – front right corner).
sandwich. That will have saved me a few
bob!
So what caused the slow response
time for the two bidders I know of who
struggled to such an extent it was
infeasible to bid? (Another was so slow
as to produce a noise not unlike Gollum
swallowing his Jakemans whole, but I
couldn’t identify where the sound came
from.) I have checked for consistency of
potential causes across; browser, client
(PC, phone, tablet, laptop), client age,
geographic distance from Buckminster,
connection, but the only apparently
common denominator is that the three
were bidding from smaller towns or
A K12 Oliver Tiger Mk IV clone made in the
ro factor in harki
unknown. The emblem is regularly seen in
the ne s on resident elensk s shirt for
example. Made £180 +12%
villages. I don’t currently know the state
of high-speed internet connection across
the UK; certainly BT City Fibre or other
fibre networking has not penetrated to
all suburbs yet let alone further afield. f
you su ered di cult on line conditions,
it might be useful to drop the BMFA an
email with details, so they can continue
to enhance their service. Is there any
real need for the video live image
at the e pense of more definite bid
information?
I was wondering, given the level of
pre-bidding on-line before the auction
started, whether it had become an eB*y
style auction and there would be little
for our Bruce to do on the day beyond
record the results. 296 lots had good
pre bids although this tailed o in the
higher lot numbers due to that well
known ailment, bidder pre-bidding
fatigue. It’s not possible to calculate
how many of these were successful
because the max pre-bid is not visible
to other bidders. Thankfully the autobid
option worked in the eB*y ‘max-bid’
style, where the system bids on your
behalf only enough to outbid the other
bidders. A certain online salesroom will
accept your max pre-bid as a single bid
and send your figure direct to the auction
house in one amount when the lot arises.
Good old BMFA.
However, my experiment with pre-
bidding was ‘wrong-footed’ because
live bidding arrived at the same value.
In theory, time precedence should give
me the win, but the auctioneer has
authority over precedence between
live, pre, commission and telephone
bidders. The software could be tweaked
to ump to final pre bid and note the
oth ell Oli er st le
kraine current status much improved. £680 +12%.

Several NIB (NEW IN Box) tuned PAW .15
examples were sold. Available by request
from the factor this one is speci call tuned
for inta e eam ace. he i aenders use
these to innin effect. i e me a tuned
.15 TBR over an Oliver any day.
nother i aender pecial a
re introduction.
easyliveauction platform o ers a 1
feature to solve this issue.
ndeed, the idlogi platform did
not appear to discern between two
live bids for the same sum arriving in
the same time interval. everal times
, and others, thought we were in the
lead only to discover someone else had
been allocated the win when ruce read
out the winner s paddle number. ve
mentioned before that other platforms
The Hobbs .75cc, in the style of an
early Mills 1.3, with display stand.
sho s its rarit .
accept simultaneous bids and run up
the bidding in the background so you
may have clicked to bid on £20 only to
find you re in the lead at . The e y
solution is to install an e y clock on
each client to precisely time each bid,
presumably via a cookie. ometimes,
ruce indicated who was in the lead
by talking to bidders via their paddle
number, and I think the technician
corrected the situation, whereupon the
usurped bidder received a red ‘your bid
has been re ected warning banner.
ind you, it was di cult to know when
you were being addressed because
no-one had been advised of their bidder
number apply your own punctuation .
One had to sort of guess and couldn t be
sure you d won until the invoice arrived.
That was a ma or drop o but m sure
the will address all these, and
the other management opportunities-
to improve ve fed back to them, to
continue to enhance this innovative
initiative.
Highlights
o, what of the business of the day.
s There were a couple of wows amongst
the lots. ike the 1 varieties of Oliver
engines and clones of all types and
marks nearly e amples were for sale
including ubs, Tigers and a ors. ave
so many types ever been in one
place together before, apart from in the
seller s display case our ero odeller
scribe beat a path to photograph these
for your enjoyment, courtesy of Manny
illiamson s time and security. The
hammer price of those on the table
totalled , 1 .
find it odd that only one other person
Aeromodelling heritage. Very rare classic kit of Westland
Lysander by S. Smith of Warrington, quite possibly the only one
in existence. These plans need preserving but digitising and
cop in costs nearl as much as the hammer at
for re-selling…
besides myself and my chau eur
thanks, oug chose to view the lots
before bidding. ossibly the quality of
lots on o er gave confidence, or
1 of lots feature or similar in
the description , or the impracticality
of viewing as many as normal when
they have to be retrieved from storage
specially. On the other hand, it s fair to
say that if I happen upon an auction
that s miles away, won t pre view
simply because of the fuel cost will rely
on the often unremarkable photos and
reduce my bids to match the heightened
risk accordingly.
tar of the day was the othwell
. cc combat motor, made from
unobtainium and hammered away at
66 1 . hope it shows good
fortune in competition - perhaps a future
detectorist will feature it on day time
T or maybe it will simply be displayed
to be admired and well insured. winner
either way.
Only 1 ills and replicas of various
si es featured, ranging from 1
for a rvine . cc, down to 6
for a pair that were stuck and thus of
indeterminate condition.
parkys were selling well sold
averaged 1 topped by a 1
ooling .61 1 cc spark ignition in very
good condition, all original and showing
little evidence of running.
ontrol line flyers were very well
served with 6 kits in lots. adio
flyers had a choice of largely classic
kits, mainly in single lots, while free flight
types could chase after kits in lots.
ear perfect impartiality that s what we
like to see.
o overall, we should congratulate
the auction team for instigating a
valuable service to the membership and
look forward to the ne t episode. There
are likely to be 1 1 lots available
to fill, which may sound plenty, but there
are collections around that could fill
those on their own, so recommend you
plan ahead if you re inclined to sell via
this channel. nd don t forget ildings
in the spring how is your pocketbook
looking
t the time of writing the full
catalogues for anuary th and th
were still available on the ational
entre website nationalcentre.bmfa.org
under the uction tab. ■
. ot
AeroModeller 1031 - 45
BEGINNERS’ SERIES

Part 1: CLOUD TRAMP

BUILD AND SET UP
STUART MARSDEN TAKES ON THE CHALLENGE OF GUIDING BEGINNERS AND RETURNERS IN TRADITIONAL
AEROMODELLING SKILLS UPDATED FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

L
ast year in my October AM
article ‘Small Field Flying’ I
put out a request to see if
any of you would benefit from
a series of articles related
to Beginners and Returners to our
wonderful Hobby and Sport. I have been
pleasantly surprised at the amount of
feedback, all positive (thank you!), and
our Editor Andrew Boddington has also
been encouraged, so here goes. We
have had several chats as to content
over the past few months, and on a joint
trip to visit the Vintage Model Company
(VMC – see last month’s AM), we started
to plan the framework for the series of
articles. I need to cover traditional build
and covering techniques as well as relate
this to modern materials and adhesives,
with progression through various aspects
of Free Flight, including at a later stage
Radio Control. Your Editor is looking for
an individual or group to do a similar
introduction and progression with Control
ine flying.
I have an image of Parents
and Children, Grandparents and

Stuart Marsden’s Grandson Max Green ready to go with his Cloud Tramp built from a VMC kit.

46 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023

Brian Waterland of Peterborough MFC Mass launch of Cloud Tramps at the start of the 2016 Flying Aces Scramble competition where one gets as
in his loud ramp in one of the man much airtime as possible in a 20 minute period.
competitions suitable for this model at
Flying Aces 2020.

Grandchildren, people across all age explanation, for the more experienced world, the date being the first aturday in
groups having a go. Many of your please bear with me. August. I took a group of my youngsters
communications have come from older and older members to Old Warden to join
readers returning to aeromodelling after CHARLES HAMPSON GRANT in the fun. The idea was to send in your
40 or so years, so it will be a broad Charles Hampson Grant, the designer flight times to the organiser and these
church. of the Cloud Tramp, was an American would be published in the modelling
As a beginning, I have selected the designer of model aircraft who was also press throughout the World, and what
Cloud Tramp and there is a reduced size involved in full size aviation. He was born fun we had. I will point you to a website
plan included here for photo enlarging, in 1 and died in 1 . first became called Endless Lift (www.endlesslift.
it is available as a free plan (there are aware of him when I was running a night com , where you can find out so much
many websites o ering free downloads class for aeromodelling back in the more about this founding father. As a
e.g. Endless Lift and Outerzone), it is 1990's, something he had done back last point, he was the editor for Model
also available as a complete kit from in the Twenties. I believe it was in 1995 irplane ews from 1 1 to 1 , and
VMC (www.vintagemodelcompany. when the first rant O T emorial in August 1954 they published the Cloud
com) and my description will focus on International Mass Launch Of Cloud Tramp plan version which is shown here
building from this kit as it is the easiest Tramps!) challenge was run, this was for and is to be found on the web. (To give
way to start for someone with no prior all interested to build a Cloud Tramp and a time scale, this was one year after my
experience. Once built the model can fly it on the same day in any part of the birth!)
be used to learn the basics of trimming
(never to be overlooked), but more of this
later. The Cloud Tramp may be relatively
simple, but it attracts all manner of
competitions; Peterborough Model Flying
Club (www.peterboroughmfc.org), always
has a competition for this model at its
Flying Aces meeting (this year on 2nd
September), and has an annual event
competing against a flying club in ew
Zealand. SAM35 also have competitions
which include Cloud Tramps. You can
of course ust fly this model for fun on
a relatively small field, ust keep the
number of turns on the rubber down!
Just to keep the experienced among
you interested, I am including some tips
which should allow you to get this model
to compete at the highest level, without
straying from the original design or
spending any extra money.
At each stage where we come across
The Vintage Model Company Cloud Tramp kit provides an easier start for beginners. Contents of the
unfamiliar vocabulary, I will put an box, very good laser cutting and balsa selection

AeroModeller 1031 - 47
 A reduced size image of the original Cloud Tramp plan from August 1954 Model Airplane News. It can
be photocopy enlarged to full size by ensuring the wing chord (the width from leading to trailing edge)
is 3 inches. As a beginner you will probably want to use a commercial 8 inch diameter plastic propeller
rather than carve your own. Alternatively you can download a plan from the Endless Lift website (www.
endlesslift.com and nd useful articles includin ho to build a better loud ramp.

AeroModeller had a smaller (70% sized)
Cloud Tramp the CT-70 by Nigel Monk as
the free full-size plan in November 2020.
A simple set of quality tools will help with
this and a lifetime of builds; 12 inch metal
rule, metal L set-square, sanding block,
razor saw, sharp craft or scalpel knife.
THE BUILD - WING
If you have ever built a model of any kind
from a kit, you may or may not remember
the usual opening to the Instructions, it
goes something like this: Please check
everything in your kit for completeness
and read the INSTRUCTIONS before
starting to build the model. PLEASE
DO THIS, I CANNOT EMPHASISE THIS
ENOUGH.
Warnings over, look at the plan again
(it comes as part of the VMC kit). We are
going to start with the wing’s Dihedral
& Incidence block, in this case it joins
the two wing halves together to give a
dihedral of 3 inches at each wing tip.
Pay particular attention to this as the
dihedral is critical if you want your model
to fly to its potential.
In the VMC kit we are supplied with
a laser cut dihedral block base and a
length of tapered trailing edge stock. If
you are cutting your own pieces you
will need to shape your own balsa. I
recommend using a sandable white glue
when building; most PVA glues are not
sandable, however Deluxe Materials
Speed Bond is, and also has a fast
‘grab’ time, meaning you can move on
more quickly. You can use other glues;
Aliphatic glues are sandable but at this
stage I am trying to keep your costs
down without compromising quality, you
will find elu e aterials are used by me
for good reason. Once the two pieces
of trailing edge (cut to length by you),
are prepared, stick these to the Dihedral
block to form a raised V like a house
roof. Leave to dry thoroughly and then
sand as per plan to achieve the ever so
important dihedral. You will see in the
kit and on the plan the small Incidence
block to be stuck to the rear of the now
prepared Dihedral block, this is supplied
laser cut in the kit to be 1/8th of an inch
in depth; you can now stick this in place.
e aware that when test flying the model
we may slightly adjust the thickness of
the Incidence bock - I have found on
a couple of my Cloud Tramps that the
Incidence block needs to be of a larger
depth, so you may well need to add
another piece of trimming balsa at the
point of trimming your model.
Once your centre wing section is
sanded to size you can join the two
wings together, please take your time
before committing to glue. Use a
sanding block to create an angle on each
wing centre, you only need a few fine
strokes. Block up each wing tip, using
two equal blocks, I sometimes make two
using scrap balsa, there is enough spare
on sheet 5 in the kit to do this, but it is
not mentioned in the instructions. Time
spent here is invaluable, you want to
make sure at this stage there is no twist
being built in. Once we put the wing ribs
in, the wing will be under tension so we
must make sure everything is left to dry
overnight before moving onto this next
stage.
Incidence: Most aircraft have an
incidence in the wing, the front of the
wing is in e ect acked up by a few
degrees, as an example 4 degrees.
The Incidence block at the back of the
wing together with the position of the
tailplane/stabilizer helps to correct any
nose up or down pitching tendency.
Dihedral: This is used to aid stability
in flight, most rubber powered models
have dihedral, in this case it is 3 inches
at each wing tip. The V Dihedral helps
correct the model if it starts to roll.
I have found the best way to join the
wings together is initially without trying
to fit the ihedral block at the same time.
Jack the wing tips up to give 3 inches
at each tip, while using Speed Bond to
each wing edge to be joined. I use a
piece of tape stuck down to my building
tile first and oin the wing over this, so
that it releases easily once fully cured. If
needed, you can use a weight to keep
the wing join hard down at the point of
the join.
Once this is fully stuck and cured you
can now adjust your Dihedral block by
sand the exact angle to create a really
snug fit. Once completely satisfied with
this you can commit yourself to glue
once more, remember only just enough
glue is required, too much glue equals
unwanted weight!
Taking time on this wing construction,
which let’s face it appears to be as
simple as it gets, is time very well spent.
Our aim is always to create an unwanted
warp free structure, and the next stage
will challenge that statement again.
Remove the four wing ribs from the
sheet and clean the laser marks o with
fine sandpaper without changing the
profile by taking too much away, we are
looking for a good bonding surface on I made some rectangular sheet supports
to give 3 inches dihedral at each tip. These
the top edge of the ribs. Take the rib need to be supporting the wing at the
forming templates which are in ply and leading and trailing edge, so make these
about 2.5 inches in height and place inboard
carefully push one of the wing sides of the tip to give 3 inches of dihedral; this
through, about a finger width. One helps to keep things twist free.
template needs to be inwards of the
inner most rib and the other a finger
width towards the wing tip. As an extra
to the kit supplied instructions, I found
the need to use a clothes peg at the
open end of the former to close it tight
Once the wing halves have been joined at
to the wing, so making the perfect shape the centre (you will need to use weight and/
to accept each rib without any air gaps, or pins to hold this while the glue sets), then
shape and glue the dihedral block.
the supplied photo should make this
easy to follow. Stick the ribs in place
using Speed Bond, allow to dry for
several hours and repeat on the other
wing panel. At this stage keep checking
the wings are not distorting but holding
their profile in line with each other, you
don't want one side dipping down or up
against the other, once satisfied allow to
dry overnight.
FUSELAGE - THE BODY OF YOUR
AIRCRAFT Middle is shown the balsa wing ribs, the
In this instance the fuselage is a ¼ x ¼ one at top left has been lightly sanded.
Underneath are the ply formers that help
inch stick, however it isn't any old stick! set the correct aerofoild section. I use
In the kit this stick is perfectly selected, Perm-Grit tools such as this sanding block
ith coarse and ne nish sides. he last a
sti , straight grained and relatively light lifetime; I have had mine at least 30 years.
for its sti ness. f building from the plan
you will need to select the right balsa for
each component. Whilst on this subject
the wings need to be light and straight
grained but not so sti they won t curve
to an aerofoil section, the same for the
tail plane or stabilizer,as the Americans
say, and also the same for the fin. s
this is article is instructional, I referred
This shows the ply wing jigs temporarily in
to the Stabilizer for a reason, as this place and held with pegs ready to stick the
term describes the main purpose of this balsa ribs.
component.
On the original plan you will see we
have a bent piece of alloy for the propeller
mount and this works very well. The VMC
kit uses a sandwich of balsa containing a
motor bush instead of the bent alloy, the
purists may prefer the original mount, for
this build I am showing the VMC version
as I believe at such a low cost for the kit
many of you will opt for the kit. You can Cloud Tramp wood components showing
the required placement measurements for
of course make an original alloy mount if the wing platforms.
using the kit.
AeroModeller 1031 - 49
BEGINNERS’ SERIES

ire bendin is de nitel a learnt skill althou h the ua e of ire used on nder carria e bound to the stick fusela e nose and restin on the sandin
the loud ramp is thin and is relati el eas to manipulate. f ne to this block hile the lue sets. lso sho n is one pre tensioned rubber motor.
it ma help to practice on some scrap ire rst. t the top is the under
carria e and middle is the rear motor hook.

he tail skid and motor hook ha e been bent from ire in one piece and
bound to the rear of the fusela e stick for securit . hin ooden do els
ha e been lued to the in platform for the in retainin bands.
lternati e prop shaft arran ement. ust bent thin piano ire attached to a
brass tube bearin ith copper ire hich is then soldered. he piano ire
is lashed to the fusela e stick nose ith thread. he shaft for the propeller is
then added ith a lass bead as a bearin . he main thin to remember is
keep the prop shaft a centimetre abo e the motor stick so as not to impede
the rubber motor as it un inds.

Build up the sandwich of the balsa
motor bush mount starting with the first
piece, glued squarely to the motor stick,
allow this to fully dry before building up
the other pieces. If desired, lightly clean
up the laser scars on the piece.
Bend the supplied wire to form the
under carriage, follow the original plan
for si es and lay this flat on your building
board and adjust until completely happy
with the squareness of each bend to one
another. Take your time on this, as it is
likely you will form many undercarriage
legs in this way with future models.
Using a drop of cyanoacrylate glue such
as Roket Hot, tack the under carriage
to the motor block as shown in the
instructions and once set, only seconds,
bind with cotton thread. Once happy,
rub in a fingertip full of peed ond not
cyanoacrylate!) all over the exposed
threads; it doesn't add much weight but
gives piece of mind. Do the same for the
rear motor hook and bind to the motor
stick in the same way, that's if you wish
to follow my method, the original plan
shows the rear motor hook going over
the stabiliser once it is stuck to the motor
stick, again the purists my wish to follow
this method. I came up with these mods
through experience, when you have
twenty children flying their models with
you and bits like your motor hook comes
loose, it spoils the flying en oyment not
just for one child but for all, as you the
teacher tries to make a rapid repair.
Fit the wing support platforms as per
instruction and my photographs and then
add the 40mm long thin dowel rubber
band securer's.
Fit the supplied plastic thrust bearing
at the nose, feed the supplied motor
hook wire through the rear of the nose
block, add a glass bead, or PTF washer
not supplied and then the supplied
8 inch prop. To make the retaining 90
degree bend in the motor hook wire, get
a narrow but strong pair of pliers and
grip tight to the motor wire and using
another pair of pliers or the tip of a hard
screwdriver, push the motor wire down
as far as you can. Release the pliers and
let the props free wheel device engage
with the wire shaft at the 90 degree bend
and finally cut o the e cess wire. do
this to avoid bending the wire along the
shaft, so check the prop is freewheeling
when not engaged with the bent over
wire end.
BALANCE THE PROPELLER
alancing a propeller prop can add
e ciency but more importantly
an unbalanced prop will give poor flight
performance, you can do this in a couple
of ways, ideally you will balance your

50 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023


Closer look at the tail showing the central
slot modi cation to the tailplane so that it
sits at on the fusela e motor stick around
the ire skid and the trim tab slits cut to
allo sli ht bendin of the trailin ed e to
impro e the i ht pattern.
rom the top the three sta es in knot t in
for a rubber motor.
The knotted motor at the bottom as it
appears after pre tensionin .
o methods of keepin the heels on
ust bendin the ire end o er or usin
insulatin plastic tube to push o er ire and
retain ith c ano.
a in launch mode ith the nose ust sli htl raised abo e the le el.
prop before you join it to the motor shaft,
however in this case it is acceptable
to balance in situ. You can buy prop
balance kits of all manner of sizes to
cope with small free flight props to large
radio controlled engine powered aircraft,
if you do this follow the instructions.
alancing at the point we have got to in
the build is principally the same method:
making sure your propeller is free on
the motor shaft and not engaged to the
prop itself, ust, while holding the model
straight and level, let the prop settle in
its natural position. Unless your prop
settles at a quarter to three as a clock
face, it is not balanced; there are two
ways to correct this. ssuming one of
the blades consistently settles lower
than the other we can be sure that blade
is the heavier, to change this we either
remove some of the front face of the
blade or add an equivalent weight to the
other blade to bring it level. enerally
prefer to use a fine sanding block to rub
away some of the plastic, it can take
a while. f the model is tail heavy it is
acceptable to add some epoxy resin to
the lighter blade. f use the add weight
method, usually use lu Tack and use
my micro scales to get a weight and then
add an appropriate amount of epoxy
to the front of the lighter blade. n any
event do please balance your propellers
at all times, don't be tempted to just use
the supplied prop, think have only ever
once had a prop o the shelf which was
balanced.
The photographs show modified the
tail surfaces to include trim tabs for fine
tuning the flight profile of the model, and
also removed a small part of balsa to
On initial i ht ith reduced number of turns a nice smooth climb out
turnin left ith a lide to match. hin s ma chan e as e increase the
number of inds on the motor more trimmin ad ice in comin articles.
stick my tailplane/stabilizer over the base
of the motor hook. This is now the time
to stick these two last building elements
in place, once again my choice is peed
Bond.
PUTTING THE MODEL TOGETHER
y go to motor is 1 grams of Tan11
rubber, made up of 4 strands of
1 th pre tensioned. That is a lot of
information for a beginner so will
elaborate. The rubber supplied with the
kit is 16th width, so more weight
per foot. f you want to use this, suggest
weighing 1 grams and knot to make a
single long loop this is a metre length
of rubber strip 16th , and you could
pre tension using the same method as
used for the 1 th rubber. put one end
of the loop with the knot onto a hook, it
could be a door handle. tretch out to
double the original length and wind on
turns slowly letting the tension ease
as you go. ou can buy a readymade
winder with counter or use a hand brace/
drill with a wire hook in the end. Put your
finger through the loop at the winder
end and place it over the door handle or
whatever you are using and let go. The
motor will bunch up, don't worry, tease
the clumps out to make an even twisted
double loop. lide a cocktail stick
through the handle end and also at the
other end and you have a pre tensioned
motor the correct length so it doesn t
sag to much thus altering the entre of
ravity often shortened to of or ,
where the model statically balances in
flight. efore you take the cocktail sticks
out, use very small elastic bands or cut
pieces from a non inflated party balloon
AeroModeller 1031 - 51
BEGINNERS’ SERIES
and wrap these so when the sticks come
out it doesn't all unravel.
If you are stumped I will cover this
preparation of rubber motors more
thoroughly in later articles, so don't be
alarmed! Just knot the 3/16th rubber and
make 4 strands without pre-tensioning,
one end over the rear motor hook and
the other on the prop hook. It will sag
and it might need some finger winds to
take up the tension, but it will fly.
Knotting correctly and lubricating
your motor are essential. The knots are
double fold over, I lick the rubber near
where I expect the knot to be and make
my first knot, pull this very tight, the
spit being the lubricant. I lick again and
make the second knot and then pull
this tight to the first, once happy trim
the ends to leave no more than 3mm or
1/8th of an inch. Once this is done, I
fully lubricate with EZE WIND and work
the lubricant well in. Store your rubber
motors out of the light and in a cool
place, I use old tablet plastic bottles.
There are many rubber lubricants and
many individual ideas but I know EZE
WIND works.
Wheels are another exhausting
subject, a Cloud Tramp isn't design to
O That s ise O round, to take
Yet another Cloud Tramp seen at Flying Aces. See how
the wing is retained under the fuselage stick with elastic
bands and can be moved forwards and aft.
52 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023
o , so you might ask why does it need
wheels? We are always trying to keep
the weight down but much of the time
the models are tail heavy and need extra
weight at the front. Dangling wheels also
o er some flight stability and there is the
need to protect your propeller, especially
if you have hand carved a balsa one.
The kit wheels provided are fine, as an
alternative I decided to make a pair from
discarded light ply left for a laser cutting
job. Securing the wheels so they don't
disappear in the flights can be an issue.
have shown a simple method of bending
up the wire so the wheels can t come o
and a slightly tidier method of using wire
insulation to grip the piano wire, adding a
drop of cyanoacrylate glued to be sure.
TO THE FLYING FIELD
My Grandson Max had been nagging me
to go flying but the weather ust hadn t
been fit. This weekend although free ing
cold saw minimal bree e o we went the
local park with two Cloud Tramps and
winder in hand.
All went well and with just 500 wind/
turns on the rubber which is about a third
to half of capacity, Max let go and as you
can see this one ust flew out of his hand
to a nice brisk climb to the left, opening
out at about 100 feet in height to a wider
glide in the same direction.
I intend to give you more guidance in
coming articles with regard to trimming.
As a starting point the CofG, the balance
point, wants to be between a third to
halfway back from the wings leading
edge. Hold the motor stick/fuselage
lightly between thumb and forefinger
and move position until the model sits
level to find the of . The balance point
is adjusted by moving the wing back
and forth on the wing support platforms
and in extreme cases by adding weight
to the front nose bearing to bring the
CofG forward or to the tail if you need
to move it back. You will be most likely
be able to work within the margins of the
wing platforms. As a beginner I suggest
setting the CofG forward to a third back
from the wing leading edge by using Blu
Tack or the like this is the best starting
position if you are not used to trimming.
Get building and join in the fun!
This series of articles is aimed at
beginners and returners so if you want
to see more information on a particular
topic in future, please email me Stuart
Marsden on stuartmarsden0@gmail.com
■
Readers’ Letters

Do let us know your thoughts on AeroModeller and

AeroPost
aeromodelling in general. We’re happy to receive post
to the Doolittle Media office address, or emails to editor@
aeromodeller.com – all are read although you may not
get a reply. Featured letters may be edited. Regards,
Andrew Boddington

INLINE ENGINE NAMED LIPO FIRES

Dear Sir,
The unnamed inline engine shown in the January
coverage of the BMFA Swapmeet was made
in Russia and sold by Mejzlik Modellbau. MMB
abbreviation consists of capitals of Mejzlik Modell
Bau. DF must be capital letters of designer’s name.
103 means 1.03 cu. in.
ou can find an original catalogue from by
using this web link:
hug.hl.free.fr atos e matos me lik.html
Sincerely, Levent Suberk
Bursa - Turkey
Hi Levent,
Thanks for the engine identification. From searching
online it seems that the Mejzlik family were originally
aeromodellers who started making competition
standard model propellers and now have a company
producing propellers for drones of 1.5m diameter and
larger. See www.mejzlik.eu
Regards, Andrew
Dear Andrew,
read with great sympathy the i o fire incident e perience by raeme ogg in the
ebruary issue. had a similar e perience but fortunately was in my house to tackle the
blaze when it happened.
I am writing because there are two other precautions that I should like to mention.
1. emoval of flammable products e.g. paint aerosols from near the charging site and
placing them preferably in a fireproof cabinet or metal bo .
. aving e tinguishers on hand suitable for metal fires.
have taken advice from my own company fire e perts who also maintain them regularly.
Yours sincerely,
ohn ristow. elu e aterials td. ufaude usiness ark, ramley, 6
Hi John,
Since running the article I have heard from more people who have had near misses with
problem battery packs. I think vigilance while charging and careful storage is the only way
whatever type of battery is used.
Regards, Andrew
FLAT WING FF MODELS
was browsing through ay 1 issue and would like to o er advice regarding the kit
review of the ookie , and the following article on cheap hinese flying toys. uch
models invariably do a coupe swoop through lack of dihedral. Using foam safe or hot
melt glue to give tip dihedral transforms them into e cellent flyers. o doubt a flat wing
is cheap to produce but is absolutely no use on a free flight model. ithout this a flat
wing model will only bring ine plicable frustration to a beginner and will be ust a cheap
toy for a couple of outings. The reviewer recommends a touch of rudder to counteract
straight flight, something that will guarantee a coupe swoop by producing a yaw without
dihedral.
Regards, Jim Paton

Hi Jim,
Thanks for your prescient observations on flat wing models. I’ve passed on your email to
Chris Ottewell who had also come to a similar conclusion.
Regards, Andrew

From Chris Ottewell,

That’s interesting in so far as the Rookie tends to end up with dihedral when built (as
a result of the way the camber is formed) so flies well! So whilst Jim is totally right in
principle = you do need the slight dihedral; the Rookie he mentions does in fact have it.
I call that a draw! By the way, last month’s Aero Scout XL is improved by its addition, as
you would expect – see my update in this issue’s Tail End Charlie.
Best wishes, Chris

This MMB inline engine was

available from Mejzlik Modellbau
and was listed in their catalogue.

The Rookie has a slight curved dihedral for stability because of the way the wing camber is formed.
LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ!

Richard Evans, Bea and Alberto Parra at the Club Tamarán

in site. t s a reat facilit on ran anaria.

54 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023

THE HOSPITALITY OF
AEROMODELLERS
WORLDWIDE
RICHARD EVANS SHARES HIS POSITIVE EXPERIENCES OF TRAVELLING AND VISITING MODELLERS IN ALL
CORNERS OF THE GLOBE

ver the last fifteen designer of the fabulous arra engines. e were staying in the south of ran

O
and taly
years or so ve been
lucky to e perience
great hospitality from
aeromodellers abroad,
particularly in ustralia, ew ealand,
lberto has been running a winter
combat competition in ran anaria for
some years. ritish flyers have attended
and won this event in the past, but
personally hadn t been there before.
hen say know in fact d only met
lberto a few times and said hello at a
anaria sland so took a bus to os
almas where lberto was there to meet
us as soon as we alighted. On the way
to his e cellent lub Tamar n flying site,
we collected ea, lberto s wife. oon
we were laying out lines and inspecting a
number of models and motors.
O n ustralia my wife and have been number of ombat events and our
put up by and put up with the likes ationals. icky ust said hy not drop Parra Engines
of teve othwell, oy ummersby, him an email, you might be able to go lberto had the pre production models
avid ailey and en ai er. flew in flying of new arra T and T engines. Of
their ontrol ine tate and unter o did drop him an email and we did course, by then we all knew of the fate
alley hampionships there. go flying of the krainian factory that was building
OOld friend ob organ welcomed us
to two combat events in ew ealand.
O ichelle alea o and lessandra
ucido took us into their home and laid
on a flying session and on site banquet
near adua in taly. onderful
O ergio Tomelerri arranged our
accommodation and gave us a tour
of his beautiful hometown of erona
before taking us to a sumptuous dinner
in a country restaurant. d known
ergio since the mid seventies.
O ntonio iandrini found
accommodation for us in ilan and
took us for meals.

This last year has been a complete

surprise. fter a fairly miserable grey
and damp winter icky decided we
needed some sunshine in pring ,
so booked us up for a few weeks in ran
anaria temperatures of or better
most days, all year mentioned did in
Soon after the start of the increased hostilities against the Ukraine in 2022 the wreckage of a Russian
fact know lberto arra, the well known hter aircraft dama ed much of the factor that produced arra and ed in en ines.

AeroModeller 1031 - 55
LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ!
Pre-production models of the new Parra T4 19 (3.2cc) engine for U.K. Vintage Combat, and the T3 15 (2.5cc) with slightly shorter crankcase and shaft. See
the Parra website for latest details www.control-line.eu
the engines for him. The same factory
also made the RedFin engines. A photo
of the destroyed factory and updates
have been published in recent issues
of AeroModeller. Amongst the things
destroyed were forty new boxed T4
motors due to be sent to Los Palmas.
e all had a good fly of type and
Vintage models. The new T3 and T4
seemed very competitive to me. The
biggest surprise to me was to see Bea
ea in . he ould put some of us to shame
56 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023
performing with a fast model with a In fact, we had three whole days with
screaming Parra motor up front. Blimey - Mr and Mrs Parra. They were the most
Impressive! charming and easy-going guides. On
I had no real expectations for the rest the final day he again drove us back to
of the day but then we were treated to our hotel and accepted OUR hospitality
a walking tour of the old town, a stroll there with an excellent 5 Star meal.
along os almas best beach and finally On this last day Alberto was able to
dinner at an excellent outdoor restaurant. tell us that in fact quite a few things had
By this time it was quite late and we’d been salvaged from the ruined Ukrainian
missed the last bus back to our hotel in factory, including
the south. Alberto drove us there. About vital computer
35 miles. Such kindness. discs. Sadly, the
n route home to the hotel lberto factory owners
asked us if we’d like to see more of the and workers had
island. ell, he was o ering trips up
mountains, visits to the Botanic Garden ichard ans in
and finally dinner back at his house. against Alberto Parra
at last November’s
How could we refuse? He does make an International V&V F2E
excellent Paella! Combat.
ome cooked aella at the arra home. elicious
 TRUSTEE FROM THE
TOOLROOM BY NEVIL
SHUTE:

s editor of ero odeller, ichard s

e perience of the hospitality of modellers
certainly chimed with me for the wonderful
times that and my late father have had with
friendly people from around the world. t also
reminded me of a novel written by evil hute
Trustee from the Toolroom.
ack in eptember 1 the ero odeller
ree lan was urk s scale glider of the
irspeed Tern. e mentioned a bit about the
irspeed company which was founded by
evil hute orway and lfred essell Titman
in 1 1 after they left ickers. evil later
became better known using his middle name
as the author of books such as On the each
and Town ike lice . was not aware at that
time of another of his books Trustee from the
Toolroom until contacted by reader ohn eid
of Teal alley, elson . t is a book that will
appeal to many readers of as the central
character writes a monthly column in a model
engineering maga ine and he is unwittingly
called upon to undertake an e traordinary
task when his sister s boat is wrecked in the
acific. t is a highly recommended read set in
the late 1 s and the hero uses his wits and
the friends he s made through his engineering
writing to take on the task.
Sion Burns, myself and Vernon Hunt. My team!

he ombat inners rostrum ichard holdin the unusual rst place troph .

fled to the olish border where they had
no home, no ob and were queuing for
food.
astly, lberto invited us to his ne t
combat competition to be held in
ovember , the first since ovid,
and he o ered accommodation. o, we
booked up flights on our return to the
. winter, and in the past this event had
Reciprocation
e have received flyers from other
countries to our home in the past. t s
the least we can do to say thank you for
their generous hospitality. en ai er
from elbourne, lessandra and ichele
from adua stayed with us prior to the
ationals. avid ailey from anberra
also visited as part of a . . tour.
lberto and ea have of course now
been invited. hope they take up the
o er. aybe they can come when our
traditional nationals can finally be held
again. et s hope it s this year.
Postscript: Return to Gran Canaria
ith very little arm twisting lberto
arra persuaded me to go back to ran
anaria and take part in their combat
event in ovember . To compete
borrowed all the combat kit from club
mate ick towe and ernon unt and
with the help of ernon and ion urns
managed to win This glorious event The
nternational has both ombat
and Old Time tunt competitions, and
apart from the ovid years has been
held annually in late ovember or early
ecember. t has proved a lure to
flyers escaping the onset of a northern
been won by artyn is el, ichard
erbert and ick ewis.
To find out more about arra engines
go to website www.control line.eu , and
for model flying on ran anaria and the
nternational go to
www.clubtamaran.com ■

AeroModeller 1031 - 57
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 CL COMPETITIONS

COMBAT SEASON 2023 TIM HOBBINS LOOKS FORWARD TO A SEASON OF COMBAT FLYING AND THE
INTRODUCTION OF THE CFA DIESEL A ‘RETRO’ CLASS.

y oining the mailing list you will receive evidenced above, we hold most of our

S
o here we all are in 2023, at
the start of a new season
of Control line combat. As
I am now the Competition
secretary of the Combat
Flyers Association, the CFA www.
combatflyers.co.uk, would like to
tell you about all the events and
competitions we have planned for the
year. hope, if you have an interest in
Control Line Combat, that there will be
something for you.
would like to start by inviting anyone
who has an interest in combat in the UK
to oin the mail ing list by sending
a request to admin combatflyers.
co.uk, or oining our acebook group
ombat lyers ssociation acebook.
regular updates and news on what is
happening and the acebook group is
very active with topical chat etc.
thought it would be useful to run
through the di erent ombat classes
being flown this year.
Vintage & Oliver Combat
ll start with intage combat we have
1 rounds which believe is the most
rounds we have ever had in a year, at
various locations throughout the
ompetition sites are getting harder and
harder to find and we are very grateful
to the representatives of all sites for
their support. uckminster has
become very important to us, and as
com-petitions at this excellent facility.
ost of these dates are weekends with
something happening on both days,
which makes the trip worthwhile for
those that live a long way away. The
main event in terms of number is usually
Vintage Combat, which normally attracts
entries in the mid to high twen ties. This
class has been our most popular class
for over thirty years now and continues
to thrive.
. n addition to uckminster, which
is pretty central for all flyers, we have
competitions in asildon, ristol and
lbermarle near ewcastle on Tyne.
asildon is the flying site of a group
of control line flyers, between them they

Richard Herbert launches a Vintage Combat Model at Buckminster. (Photo by Tony Cookson)

60 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023

 rom the left on ookson marshal eil a ood in a ainst ichard erbert at a inta e e ent at Old arden. hoto b ndre oddin ton

have negotiated the use of Basildon Tribe.

Sport & Leisure Club, Gardiners Way,
Gardiners Lane South, Basildon SS14
3AP. They meet there every Wednesday
and the members fly a variety of control
line models weather permitting, if it
isn’t permitting they use the clubhouse
facilities. Sounds good to me. They are
not a club as such, simply a group of
likeminded people. Contact Brian Waters
on brian.waters2@ntlworld.com if you
The first competition was held at
this venue in 2022 and everyone that
attended gave a glowing re-port of the
site, the facilities and the organisation of
the contest, for which we have to thank
Eamonn Forsdyke. Last year there was a
barbecue. No pressure then Eamonn…
Bristol has been on the contest
calendar for decades and Mick Lewis is inta e class inale co ered in tie d ed n lon
the organiser. It’s a superb venue with a b am obbins. hoto b on ookson

are interested in joining this group which closely mown flying area, a social club
includes AM CL Scale columnist Ronnie where you can get food and a belting

FULL 2023 COMBAT EVENT CALENDAR:

April 1st Buckminster, CFA Diesel A Round 1

April 2nd Buckminster, Vintage Round 1
April 16th Bristol Gala, Vintage Round 2
April 29 Albemarle, F2D training comp TBC
April 30 Albemarle, Vintage reserve TBC Round 3
ay 1 th Old arden. nformal combat fly in
May 14th Old Warden, Oliver Jack Marsh Trophy
May27th Albermarle, F2D Training Comp
May 28th Albermarle, Vintage Round 4
June 10th Buckminster, F2D Training Comp couple of stacked ink anther airframes a ait
June 11th Buckminster, Vintage Round 5 their bearers. hoto b an hompson of est
ern ustralia.
July 2nd Basildon, Vintage Round 6
July 15th Buckminster, CFA Diesel A Round 2
July 16th Buckminster, Vintage Round 7
July 22nd Old Warden, CFA Diesel A Round 3
July 23rd Old Warden, Vintage Round 8
August 12th Vintage Taster/Introduction day
August 13th Buckminster, Vintage Round 9
August 22nd-24th Buckminster, Nationals, All Classes V Round 10
eptember 16th Old arden, nformal combat fly in
September 17th Old Warden, Oliver John Oliver Trophy
September 23rd Buckminster, Vintage Round 11
October 7th Buckminster, F2D Team Trials
October 8th Buckminster, Vintage Round 12 he ink anther is one of the desi ns suitable
October 21st/22nd Buckminster, Nats/F2D team trials reserves dates for the ne iesel class. his is ames
lark s bri ht oran e model. hoto b te e
aller

AeroModeller 1031 - 61
CL COMPETITIONS

Lionel Smith was the pitman for this Pink Panther model for the Retro event Johnathon Crabtree with a Pink Panther and Lionel Smith with Mike Waller’s
in late 2021. (Photo by Steve Waller) Cloud 9. (Photo by Ste-ve Waller)

pint or 2 of Guiness. The address is
erkeley ower tation, amfields
eisure, erkeley 1 T
Albermarle. This one is ‘oop north’.
t s an active airfield barracks the
Novocastrian club have per-mission
to fly there. The flyers have used
this venue successfully for many years.
The ad-dress is Albermarle Barracks,
Newcastle on Tyne NE15 0RG, Martin
Johnson is the organiser.
Old Warden. This venue has become
the spiritual home of Oliver combat, in
addition to the Vintage combat event in
July. we have two Oliver competitions,
The Jack Marsh trophy, (May 14th) and
the John Oliver trophy. On a sunny
afternoon, there is nowhere nicer to be
than Old Warden.
CFA Diesel A ‘Retro’
The CFA Diesel A is a new ‘Retro’ class
which is in development. There are three
CFA Diesel A events this year; April 1st
Buckminster, July 15th Buckminster
and July 22nd Old Warden. All these
dates are Saturdays, and they precede
a Vintage combat event on the following
Sunday. In creating this class, the rules
for F2E have been expanded to allow
additional models and motors in an
e ort to make it more popular, more fun
and easier to enter without the need
for specialised gear. Essen-tially the
changes mean that as you can now
fly the popular etro models with .1
motors, which were the subject of a very
popular one o event by ike aller in
2021 (see Retro Combat report in March
22) and the event is run as a round robin,
not a knockout competition, so everyone
gets to fly the same amount of bouts,
typically 4. It is also run as a 3 Round
league.
For clarity, the F2E competition to be
held at the Nationals must be run under
normal FAI/BMFA rules as it’s a BMFA
competition.
Here are the rules as they stand at
the moment. This class, being a CFA
introduced event, does have some
fle ibility so if we need to change
anything to ensure a good turnout, we

To get started in Combat and have a go at

a Taster day you don’t need to spend lots of
money or have specialist kit. Tim Hobbins
designed the Fly-Me starter model (Free Plan
in September 2020 AM or parts from Hobbins
Hobbies) which is a traditional build wing
suitable for engines such as the PAW 2.49
.ei aender.com
The Ironmonger 69 was the full size free plan in September 2015 AM.

62 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023


here is no escapin the ine itable ith ombat... his is
after a mid air collision. hoto b ndre
may do that. Pre entry for these
events can be found on the
CFA website, these are normally
activated a week prior to the
event.
CL Combat Taster
We are running a Taster/
Introduction to Control Line
Combat day on 12th August
at BMFA Buckmin-ster, the
day before the Vintage combat
competition on Sunday 13th
August. The event is aimed
at those of you who have an
interest in Combat but for one
reason or another have not
made the de-cision to enter
a competition. The event will
be run in a non-competitive,
supportive manner where
experienced pilots are on hand
to o er advice and training.
It can be daunting to make
the move from flying control
line solo for fun, to flying two
in a circle with someone who
is trying to cut the streamer
attached to your model, but
everyone who is flying combat
today had to learn somehow.
Rapid progress can be made
with a bit of help and advice.
Gearwise, just bring what you
have, ideally something with
a 2.5cc or 3.5cc motor, diesel
or glow, you will need to bring
fuel and lines. Lines will need to
ick e is nduril
oddin ton
regulation length, that is 15.92
metres from the centre line of
the model to the front face of
your handle, give or take 75mm.
If you don’t have, or can’t make
these lines then we should have
some available at the event.
A combat model of some sort
is preferable to a full fuselage
scale model, unless you feel
lucky...
We can possibly make
kit available on the day but
you should let us know well
beforehand because this will be
quite limited.
Also if you want to build your
own model(s) for this event
then can o er free ombat
plans as a file, which you
can then get printed at your
local print shop and I can also
o er complete kits which will
discount for this event. If you
are interested attending this
event and would like to know
more, please email me at tim.
hobbins@gmail,com.
If you do have an interest in
Combat, please come along.
It really is great fun in a good
atmosphere.
Informal Combat Fly-Ins at
Old Warden
Additionally, there are two
Informal Combat Fly-Ins at Old
Warden on Saturday May 13th
CFA DIESEL A COMBAT RULES 2023:
By Gordon Price / CFA Committee 30/1/23 – Version 1.1
The F2E comps on Saturdays before vintage will use the BMFA F2E
rules as below with the follow ing additions Modifications (Rationale
in brackets below). Revised to remove speed limit, allow R in Retro
models and clarify engine/prop rules.
1. There is no speed limit, however engine prop combinations will be
enforced as follows:
• F2E/Schnuerle port diesel engines must use F2E spec 190x150mm
props with the exception of the FORA junior (Any commercially available
prop) and the original STAR ( x unmodified prop)
Radial port .5cc engines can use any commercially available prop.
intage legal 1 . cc diesels must use a full x unmodified
commercial prop.
(Inherits the prop rules from other classes, aiming for performance
equality and limits and al-lows radial 2.5s to go a bit faster)
2. Eligible models for Retro combat can be used (5th and th
Revolution, Titan, ink anther, Cloud , Jaguar and ertigo), with .5cc
engines as above under F E rules, or 1 ’s on x propellers. (This allows
existing retro models to be used as a few people them ready to go, and
tries to keep speeds limited)
3. The competition will be run in a partial round robin basis with all pilots
flying in each round, with a random draw, and the aim to complete
rounds. In the event of a large entry the competition will be ruin on a
knockout losers refly basis. (Allows all people to get the same number
of flights – odd number of entrants needs even no of rounds)
4. Bout scoring, penalties etc is as original F E rules.
5. A minimum pre entry of 10 is needed to ensure the competition
goes ahead.(Allows for no shows leaving which is 1 more than the
minimum of – pilots, pitmen, scorers, cen tre marshall)
6. Event scoring is 1 point for attending and 1 point per bout won. An
overall league position is the sum of the 3 events scores. Tied positions
in the league will be sorted by a fly o .
4.8.6 BMFA VARIATIONS ON F2E DIESEL COMBAT
4.8.6.1 Characteristics (FAI 4.G.5)
(a) As the majority of models used in this class in the . . are purchased
already built and these are supplied without the wire from the bellcrank
to the motor, FAI rule . .5.(f) will not be enforced for F E until further
notice.
(b) Any engine model combination eligible for intage Combat may be
used.
(c) In F E, only when the Fora Junior is used any commercially available
thermoplastic propeller may be used with no reworking of the prop,
except for the removal of material from one side to bal-ance.
. . . lassi cation . .
(a) Competitors will normally compete with each other in a knockout
competition chosen by random draw. The losers of each of the first
round flights will be allowed to compete in a further losers re fly round.
(b) The winners from this round will be drawn with winners from the first
round to provide a second round of contests.
(c) The rounds will continue until eight competitors are left so that
uarter, semi and final round pro vide an overall winner.
. . . umber of odel ircraft tc . .
One model per match shall be allowed. Engine changes are not allowed.
Line changes are allowed during the combat period. The changed lines
will be pull tested by the Centre Marshal.
otes ilot
The pilot must wear protective headgear with the strap fastened
throughout the bout.
Fly Away’
A fly away shall be defined as going outside a pre determined area
set by the organisers. At the ationals this will be the roped o area .
Clarifies rule . .5.1 (b)
AeroModeller 1031 - 63
CL COMPETITIONS

Once you get the bug you will need more airframes! A stack of 5th A well organised Neil Hayward awaits his bout. (Photo by Tony Cookson)
Revolutions.

and Satur-day September 16th. These
are pretty much as described, with a
competition on the Sunday follow-ing the
above dates many combat flyers take
the opportunity to make a weekend of it
and get to-gether on the Saturday in the
corner of the airfield with all the other Old
arden , activi ties taking
place elsewhere. To anyone who wants
to join in and bring a model along, you
are very welcome. There’s plenty of room
where we have our circles, down at the
bottom of the airfield. This is also a good
opportunity to meet other combat flyers
there is no competition on the day so
most of them will be just testing models
and socialising so it a great chance
to talk to the fliers, get them to show
their gear and explain what they are up
to. ombat flyers are a great group of
people. Even those from the south..!
Leagues
As you may have noticed, we have 2
leagues running this year, the Vintage
Combat league and the CFA Diesel A
Combat league. I and others in the CFA
will do our best to keep ero odeller
updated as we progress through the
year.
o that s how is looking. f you
have any interest in Control Line combat,
there are now a number of ways to get
involved. e look forward to seeing you.
Tim Hobbins can supply many combat
and CL related items including laser cut
parts. You can email him at tim.hobbins@
gmail.com or find his page on Facebook
‘Hobbins Hobbies’. ■

Mick Lewis organising the draw at Old Warden aided by Richard Evans. (Photo by Tony Cookson)

64 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023

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TO FINISH
Tail End Charlie
Another pot pourri of aeromodelling miscellany…
Joining the Jet Set
I’ve been fascinated by pulse
jets ever since I witnessed
Hoppy Hopkins start his home
built Ivankov on a remote
omerset airfield in the 1 6 s.
They are very, very noisy, tricky
to handle and hardly the safest
thing in the world. obby ing
produced a Dynajet clone
about 1 years ago but that
proved to be pretty useless out
of the box so that was the end
of the story for me – until now!
ecently, someone o ered
me a part built radio controlled
delta model with a very neat
looking et mounted on top.
As RC pulse jets are (in the
at least an insane idea,
declined, but did o er to buy
the pulse et.
Eventually I ended up
owning the neat little jet engine!
The seller said he thought it
was homemade, but I am not
certain about that; Chris Coote
has suggested it might be a
German made Braun whilst
John Phillips suggested a
home built Brauner, designed
by mil rauner of ladno in
Czechoslovkia as it was at the
time. The plans and an article
in English by the designer were
published in AeroModeller
in uly 1 . owever whilst
similar, the dimensions are a
little di erent o any of you
clever people recognise it or
know anything about it f so,
PLEASE let me know ASAP!
imensions are mm
overall length, tail pipe is
mm long, mm outside
diameter, belled out to mm
at the end. The combustion
chamber parallel section is
mm long with an outside
diameter of about 6mm. The
66 AeroModeller 1031 - April 2023
intake is about mm diameter.
For now, I have passed it
to Steve Harvey as he built
a control line speed model
for the useless pulse et
mentioned above which has
never flown. opefully he will
be able to adapt it to take my
engine and we might get to
have it flown at uckminster, or
even the “traditional” NATS if it
is resurrected in future ingers
crossed!
ou can find a ouTube
video of someone running a
small pulse jet by searching
for “MrTeslonian Powerful
little Pulse Jet” – Note I do
not endorse their restraint
methods!
Earlier Jets
Doing a little research on pulse
jets in general, I found a useful
paper by written by John Grant
O rien in 1 as his aster s
Thesis. was surprised to find
that the earliest design dated
to 1 and was in many ways
superior to the commonly
recognised rgus 1 or yna et
configuration as it proposed
the use of aerodynamic valves
rather than a mechanical
one. The designer was called
arconnet.
As you might expect, the
thesis dives quite deeply into
thermodynamic theory at which
most people switch o so
won’t quote it here; however
for those who are interested,
you can download a version
from the CORE research
papers website core.ac.uk from
the ownload option.
Scout XL
I hope some of you have had
a go at foam-board modelling
Does anyone
recognise
the origins of
this Pulse Jet
engine acquired
by Chris?
and produced a few “Aero
Scout XL” models from last
issue s plan, or simple profile
models of your own design. s
a variation, I made a dihedral
wing recently for improved
stability. cut out a one piece
wing then used a razor saw to
slice through at the dihedral
breaks from the top, being
careful NOT to cut or damage
the lower skin. then used a
new Swan Morton blade and
a steel straight edge to open
the cut to become a neat
“vee” which allowed the two
parts to touch at the desired
dihedral angle. then simply
spread a little Deluxe Materials
Speedbond in the joint, set the
wing at the desired angle and
left it to cure overnight. had
expected to have to reinforce
the joint, perhaps with tissue
and resin, but to my surprise
it was absolutely solid and
shows no sign of weakening in
use. applied dihedral to the
outer inches or 6 mm of
my wing and set the tip at 1
inch or mm high.
Let me know how your
variations work out. erhaps ll Dyna-Jet was the well known US
brand Pulse Jet in the 1950’s.
try a gull wing next for a “Stuka
ero cout or a variant
Anyway, if you can answer
any of my questions, have
pictures of your own foam-
board models or other
creations to share, stories
or anecdotes from “back in
the day” or heaven forbid, More recently Hobby King produced
a Pulse Jet but it needed work to be
complaints, contact me using made to run successfully.
chrisottewell anworld.com
or by writing to the editorial
o ces. ■
By Chris Ottewell
he stabilit of pro le liders such
as last month’s Scout XL can be
improved with tip dihedral.
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